The cabinet agreed today to cut the excise tax on diesel by one baht per litre for three months, effective January 20 until April 19.

Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat said that the tax cut will help ease the financial burden on consumers, but will cost the state about Bt6 billion in revenue loss over the three-month period.

He said the government will try to manage energy prices in line with global oil prices and in a way that it will not place too much of a burden on the national budget in the long term.

Julapun maintains that the government has no policy to fix the price of diesel, adding that it also has no plans to cut benzine prices.