COST OF LIVING / ELECTRICITY

Power goes up again, this time by nearly 7%, as Ft fee soars

BKK POST

YUTHANA PRAIWAN

The Electricity Regulatory Board yesterday raised the cost of power by almost 7%. The panel hiked the energy adjustment charge, known as Ft, by 19 satang per unit (kilowatt-hour) for the four-month period from February to May.

The 33% Ft increase, to 76 satang per unit, up from 57 satang for the October-January period, will increase the total per unit charge to slightly more than three baht, a 6.73% increase.

However, households which use less than 150 units per month will receive a 10-satang per unit Ft discount.

Board chairman Yongyuth Wichaidit said the Ft hike resulted from an 8% increase in electricity demand.

This forced generators to run on fuels which were becoming more expensive, such as natural gas and diesel oil.

Electricity purchased from independent power producers cost 1.8 baht per unit and about 1.7 baht from small power producers.

Mr Yongyuth said households which consume less than 150 units per month will receive the 10-satang discount from February to May.

As a result, electricity bills for these households will increase by an average of 10 baht.

Households using 151-400 units per month will see their bills rise an average of 27 baht and those using more than 400 units will jump by 56 baht.

The Ft rate is also expected to increase only slightly in the next four-month period, given the completion of a new natural gas pipeline and the increased use of coal for power production.

Once again the Bangkok Post shows a way with figures.

My increase will be 375 baht per month. Rather higher than the 56 baht average they provide for those over 400 units per month (400 x .19[increase] = 76 x 1.07[VAT] = 81.32). So at 400 it would be an increase of 81.32 baht and continue on up.

They also neglected to mention there is a 7% VAT tax on top.

Dammit - it feels like it has been going up every day... oil just fell back to $60 per barrel so hope to see a reduction soon...

Without having looked at anything else then the increase is 7%+vat so about 8% using round nos. A 2000 Baht bill before will then increase to 2160 Baht. Irritating extra money to pay for sure.

Cheers!