The domestic retail price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) will remain unchanged in April, the Energy Policy and Planning Office (Eppo) has confirmed, despite cheaper global LPG prices.
Director-general Twarath Sutabutr said global LPG prices dropped by US$80 to $460 a tonne in March, while the stronger Thai baht made imported gas cheaper, bringing the retail price of the gas to 17.60 baht per kilogramme, down from 20.60 baht per kilogramme.
He said keeping the retail price unchanged allows the government to cut levies collected by the state Oil Fund.
"The state Oil Fund subsidised retail gas prices when global oil prices surged," Mr Twarath said. "Eppo has agreed to keep retail prices unchanged and cut the state Oil Fund's subsidy rate from 6.30 baht per kg to 3.70 baht per kg."
As a result, the domestic retail price of the gas will remain 20.96 baht per kg for the month of April, he said.
The subsidy reduction will cut the fund's expenses, down by 322 million baht from the current spending of 444 million baht.
As of April 2, the fund stood at 40.2 billion baht, he said.
Mr Twarath said the recent tropical storm, which reduced temperatures, has helped cut power demand in March, resulting in real power demand to be lower than expected.
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) previously forecast power demand in March would reach 603 gigawatt hours (GWh).
Heavy rains brought temperatures down to 33-34C, cutting real power demand to 552.2GWh, and peak power demand to 26,220 megawatts from the previous forecast of 28,250MW.
Eppo also acknowledged that gas supply was interrupted during the maintenance work of the Yadana gas block in Myanmar, but it was completed faster than expected.
The maintenance of the Yadana gas block was scheduled for March 25- April 2, but the work was finished a day earlier, enabling gas supply from the block to return to normal levels quicker than scheduled.