The meeting of Energy Policy and Planning Committee on Wednesday agreed to raise the State Oil Fund levy on petrol and gasohol by 0.20 baht a litre and 0.40 baht for gasohol E20 and diesel.
The oil fund levy increase takes effect from Thursday, Feb 28.
Energy Minister Pongsak Raktapongpaisan said after the meeting that the levies were increased on the back of a substantial decline in global oil prices.
There was still room for oil traders to cut pump prices by 0.20 baht per litre for petrol and other kinds of gasohol, while the prices of gasohol E20 and diesel could be kept unchanged, he said.
Mr Pongsak said after the levy increase, the oil fund's loss would be reduced to 21 million baht a day, from 50 million baht.
As of Feb 24, the financial status of the oil fund was at 15.49 billion baht in the red.
PTT Plc, the country’s largest oil conglomerate, projected that global oil prices would further go down over the next few months as the northern hemisphere winter ends in the US and Europe, resulting in a sharp decline demand for oil.
The fragile economy in Europe and the US were other factors that brought down global oil prices, PTT said.
At 4.30pm, PTT and Bangchak Petroleum announced that they were cutting pump prices by 0.20 baht a litre for petrol, effective from midnight.
The new retail prices at PTT and Bangchak’s outlets in Bangkok and nearby provinces on Thursday will be 48.75 baht a litre for petrol 95, 46.25 baht for petrol 91, 40.33 baht for gasohol 95, 37.88 baht for gasohol 91, 34.88 baht for gasohol E20, and 23.18 baht for gasohol E85.
The price of diesel remains unchanged at 29.99 baht per litre.