Measures to smoothen Oil Fund's subsidies
Aside from the endorsement a bigger credit facility, the Oil Fund on Friday wins the approval to extend the loan repayment period from 1 to 3 years.
The National Energy Policy Council, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong, reached the conclusion on Friday.
The credit facility would support the Oil Fund's fuel subsidies, he said. Meanwhile, the Energy Fund Administration Institute (EFAI) which manages the fund is also given a greenlight to extend the repayment period accordingly to the fund's liquidity.
The Oil Fund recently won the approval to boost the credit facility from Bt10 billion to Bt30 billion.
The Council also approved the EFAI's spending plan during 2012-2016 to promote energy conservation. Through the spending of Bt7 billion a year or a total of Bt35 billion, the fund will emphasise largely on energy efficiency which will receive half of the budget. Of the remaining sum, 45 per cent would be used to promote the alternative energy development plans and 5 per cent on strategy implementation.
Kittiratt also assigned the Energy Ministry to run a project to promote energy-saving among government-owned buildings. Under a Bt6 billion budget, the pilot project could spread its responsibility to cover privately-owned buildings. For the government buildings alone, the project targets to reduce energy bills by Bt1.8 billion per annum and carbon emission by 442,000 tonnes per annum. As of 2012, the number of government-owned buildings reach 823.
