Arak: Let panel study energy prices

The study should recommend appropriate prices of all energy sources from LPG to NGV, the minister said, adding that a study by the independent regulatory body should be more acceptable to the public. In the past, groups of people always opposed the studies by other state or private parties on energy prices.
The differences in the prices of LPG for industry, transport and households should be eliminated when the price is floated. The government will assist only those sectors that deserve a subsidy, Arak said.
The private sector, especially major NGV users like truck operators, should open their own NGV retail stations. But none of the truck operators, which have opposed the hike in the NGV price, showed any interest to open the stations, the minister said.
He said he did not understand why some people were protesting at the ministry against energy price hikes when as far as he knows they were flood victims.
About 100 people gathered at the ministry on Monday to demand that the regulator cancel the plan to raise the fuel adjustment factor by 18 satang per unit in the September-December period, cancel the hike in the LPG price for the transport industry by 25 satang per kilogram this month and reduce the prices of all fuel types by Bt5 per litre.
They also demanded that the ministry give them its answer on Friday.