Thailand’s National Energy Policy Committee (NEPC) has decided to increase the retail price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in March by 15 baht, to 423 baht for a 15kg cylinder, Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow said today (Friday).

The committee did, however, agree to freeze the retail price of LPG for February at 408 baht for a 15kg cylinder, an ex-factory price of 19.9833 baht/kg, excluding VAT.

Supattanapong said that the Oil Fund is incurring losses of about 813 million baht a month by subsidising the retail price of LPG at 408 baht per 15kg.

He admitted that the Oil Fund’s accumulated losses now stand at 44.8 billion baht, which is close to the limit of 48 billion, adding that the actual retail price for a 15kg cylinder should be 450 baht, to reflect the global on January 16th, which was US$698 dollars per tonne.

The NEPC also agreed to reduce the electricity rate, for households which do not consume more than 150 units per month, by 92.04 satang per unit and for users of between 151and 300 units by 67.04 satang per unit until April.

The rate cut will benefit 19.66 million households, but will cost the state 7.5 billion baht over the four-month period, said the energy minister.