FUEL CRISIS
AMORNRAT MAHITTHIROOK
Truckers are demanding three million litres of subsidised diesel a day from the government to help them cope with the rising cost of fuel. Thongyu Khongkhan, secretary-general of the Land Transport Confederation of Thailand, said yesterday that the request for three million litres a day was based on 20,000 trucks that needed the government's assistance nationwide.
He wants the government-supplied diesel to be cheaper than the market price by three baht a litre.
According to Mr Thongyu, the 20,000 trucks include 2,600 vehicles operating in the Northeast, another 5,000 that serve the export and import sectors, and about 4,000 others running in the South.
The proposal was made to the Transport Ministry, which will have to forward it to the Energy Ministry, the expected procurer of the subsidised diesel.
Mr Thongyu said the state could supply the subsidised diesel to truckers directly through their associations, and if that is considered inconvenient, the truckers should be allowed to refuel their vehicles as usual and keep the bills to later claim the three-baht-per-litre subsidy from the state.
He promised that truckers would register with the Land Transport Department so that their fuel use could be checked.
Any fraudulent truckers who receive subsidised diesel and sell it to other parties would be punished by having their membership and any benefits for which they are now eligible cancelled, Mr Thongyu said.
In another development, Mr Thongyu also urged the Port Authority of Thailand (PAT) not to impose the new insurance fee on truckers operating at the Bangkok Port in Klong Toey.
He said the PAT's new insurance fee, to be enforced from Tuesday, would cost truckers 5,000-10,000 baht per vehicle and that would unnecessarily increase their financial burden.
If the PAT ignores the demand, they will ask the Administrative Court to freeze the new fee. Mr Thongyu said the PAT is already collecting many other fees from truckers.
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