Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva has slammed the government's energy policy management, questioning why people have to pay high prices for cooking gas and petrol despite oil prices on the world market plunging.
Mr Abhisit wrote on his Facebook page yesterday that people have high expectations for energy reform but so far, the issue has only led to confusion and no framework has been set out.
"More importantly, the government's energy policy changes seem to contradict what people want from energy reform," Mr Abhisit said.
He said the demand for energy reform arose after people felt that energy business operators reaped huge benefits from the nation's energy resources while people had to shoulder hefty energy bills.
This government's energy policy changes have not reflected people's demand for lower energy costs, he said.
Current gas and fuel prices were not based on market mechanisms as the government had told the public, nor on actual cost and fairness.
Governments in the past set a principle that households and the transport sector deserved to buy gas at production cost while prices for industries would have to be based on world market prices, Mr Abhisit said.
As a result, the gas price for households was frozen at 18 baht per kilogramme while the industrial sector was subject to a rate of 30 baht per kilogramme.
But this government has cut the price of gas for industries from 30 baht to 24 baht and has gradually increased the price for households, he said, adding the current price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for households and transport has reached 24 baht/kg.
Mr Abhisit said some petrochemical firms even have the right to buy LPG at lower prices than households. The government also claimed the increase in the LPG price for households was a result of rising costs on the world market.
This did not make sense, Mr Abhisit said, because it had reduced the price for the industrial sector.
For diesel, past governments froze the price since it is a major energy cost for industries while petrol is mostly used for personal motor vehicles, but this government is trying to equalise diesel and petrol prices irrationally, he said.
"Since the coup on May 22, crude oil prices on the world market have tumbled by 40% but local oil prices do not reflect this. The local ex-refinery price of oil is down only 20% while the diesel price has declined by just 2%," Mr Abhisit said.
"The policy not only goes against the spirit of reform but also has more of an adverse impact on the economy and the people," he said.