Ministers at odds over higher Bangkok petrol tax

Energy minister opposes transport minister’s proposal for stimulating public transport use

Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga is unhappy with a proposal by Transport Minister Suriya Jungrungreangkit to raise the petrol tax in Greater Bangkok to stimulate public transport use and help pay for fare subsidies.

Mr Pirapan, who is also the leader of the United Thai Nation Party, said on Thursday that personally he wanted to find ways to cut petrol prices, and there were many other options to promote public transport.

He was responding to Mr Suriya’s proposal to raise the excise tax on petrol in Greater Bangkok to encourage motorists to use mass transit systems. He said the tax might be raised by 0.50 baht per litre. Mr Suriya is from the coalition-core Pheu Thai Party.

“A tax increase depends on the government. Personally I wouldn’t make a hike. Our measures now are to cut, not to raise (petrol prices),” Mr Pirapan said.

The idea of increasing the tax on petrol in the capital would trouble people at a time when the government was already concerned about their problems with the cost of living, he added.

Mr Suriya said earlier on Thursday that a potential tax increase of 0.50 baht per litre of petrol would motivate car drivers to opt for electric trains, for which fares have already been reduced to 20 baht per trip on some routes.

He said the 20-baht flat fare was already in effect on Bangkok’s Red and Purple electric train lines, and the government is still determined to extend the flat rate to all electric railways within the next two years. The 20-baht flat fare was part of the Pheu Thai election campaign platform earlier this year.

The government would have to subsidise the flat fare to secure the revenue of electric train operators holding concessions from the state for other lines, Mr Suriya said.

According to the minister, the subsidy, estimated at 7 billion to 8 billion baht annually, could be funded by a higher excise tax on petrol in Greater Bangkok. It might also include allocations from the government budget and contributions from the Energy Conservation and Promotion Fund and the Oil Fuel Fund, he said.

The electric train fare subsidy, coupled with funding from an energy conservation fund, is a practical model implemented in many other countries as electric trains are an energy-efficient mode of transport, he added.

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