Heard the red shirts got diesel cheap actually at a steal. Sell it like you stole it.

I don't see how The Nation got from "9. Achieve energy stability" to price capping. Maybe something was added in translation.

Here's a Link to a document that talks energy subsidies in Thailand....subsidies that are mostly "reduced/waivered excise tax "or" tax on other fuel products being used to subsidize other fuel products like diesel." It's really just a tax shell game. A partial quote from the document follows regarding the diesel subsidy which is really just a waiver of the govt "excise" tax (not to be confused with the 7% VAT which is still part of the cost per liter). Maybe the last sentence of below quote best says it that by not collecting the excise tax they call it a subsidy.

2.3.4 Diesel

the main types of diesel used in thailand are high-speed diesel with 0.05 per cent sulphur content

(hsd 0.035%s) and low speed diesel (lsd). biodiesel blending of 2 per cent to 5 per cent has been

mandatory for diesel sold in thailand as of may 2011 (usda, 2011).

two successive thai national governments have capped the retail price of hsd diesel in the bangkok

metropolitan region below thb 30 per litre. the policy first emerged in december 2010 when the

public and industry expressed concerns after the diesel price rose above thb 30 per litre (“bus

operators mull fare hike,” 2010). the administration of Prime minister abhisit vejjajiva initially

applied a subsidy from the oil fund to reduce diesel prices.

the oil fund became depleted and in april 2011 a decision was taken to temporarily reduce the

diesel excise tax from thb 5.30 per litre to thb 0.005 per litre. the vat of thb 0.40 was also

removed, leading to a total tax exemption of thb 5.70 per litre . since that time, the excise tax

exemption has been repeatedly extended and an oil fund levy or subsidy has been applied to

maintain the price close to thb 30 per litre.

the cost of the excise tax exemption was over thb 100 billion in foregone revenue in 2012 alone

(table 10). a policy to reduce excise tax reduces the price paid by consumers and hence is classified

as a subsidy.

Brave manifesto and wishes, realistic or unrealistic ? doable or not ? solutions lasting or flawed ?

Wants and words are great n all that but its actually implementing how and the results that count.

Good luck delivering all that effectively is all I can say.

At least they seem to be doing something for ALL the people of Thailand which is FAR more than the PTP goverment ever did. Oddly enough the PTP were great at words but managed to deliver very little and virtually nothing for ALL of the Thai people.

Why they have even managed to start paying the farmers with money and not soft honeyed lies.

In the short term diesel & LPG, etc needs to be subsidised to help the economy, given the large differential between Thailand's rich and poor they could start by taxing the rich a bit more and investigate where they got their wealth.

Brave manifesto and wishes, realistic or unrealistic ? doable or not ? solutions lasting or flawed ?

Wants and words are great n all that but its actually implementing how and the results that count.

Good luck delivering all that effectively is all I can say.

At least they seem to be doing something for ALL the people of Thailand which is FAR more than the PTP goverment ever did. Oddly enough the PTP were great at words but managed to deliver very little and virtually nothing for ALL of the Thai people.

Why they have even managed to start paying the farmers with money and not soft honeyed lies.

umm because there are no checks and balances or senate or governmental departments or other depts bodies that can say no or even limited by a constitution or in fact any rules to get in the way maybe ?

Funny what you can achieve when you can make all the rules as you see fit.