The government has been advised to take steps to cope with an average 5% to 10% increase in the prices of goods in May, when the diesel price, which has been pegged at 30 baht/litre, will be allowed to float and cargo transporters are likely to increase transport charges.
With the government’s decision to end subsidies on diesel at the end of this month, he said cargo transport operators are likely to raise their charges by 15-20%.
This will lead to the projected rise is the price of goods, said Kriengkrai , as he advised the government to roll out measures to ease the burden on consumers.
President of the Land Transport Federation of Thailand (LTFT) Apichart Prairungruang said that if the price of diesel rises beyond 30 baht/litre, cargo transport operators will increase their charges by 3% for every 1 baht increase in the price of fuel.
He claimed that the transport cost is currently estimated at 6 baht per kilometre.
Apichart said that the government will help ease the financial burden on the cargo transporters by further lowering relevant excise taxes.
In the past several months, the LTFT has flexed its muscles by staging protests, intended to persuade the government to allow them to increase cargo transport charges, but without success.
According to the Commerce Ministry, the prices of essential consumer goods remain unchanged, because the ministry has not granted permission for producers to raise their prices, except for some where production costs have increased substantially.
Retailers have also been instructed to display the prices of products clearly, to prevent overpricing.
