Thai Cabinet Approves Electricity Bill Discounts Over the Next 4 Months for 19 Million Households

(CTN News) – According to the Thai Cabinet, over 19 million families will get savings on their power bills over the next four months.

The Bangkok Post reports that the reductions will be available from the rest of this month (January) until April 2023.

Anucha Burapahaisri, the deputy secretary-general to the prime minister, claims that the high power price has led to the approval of the reductions.

Discounts on the fuel tariff price will be given to households who consume up to 300 units of power via the Metropolitan Electricity Authority, Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, Provincial Electrical Authority, and Electricity Authority of Royal Thai Navy Welfare Concession.

A discount of.6704 baht per unit is available to those who use 150–300 units monthly. According to Anucha, 19.66 million families will profit from the reduction.

Due to rising fuel costs for energy production, electricity prices in Thailand have reached a record high of 4.72 baht per unit since last September.

The Cabinet offered incentives to electric consumers who used fewer than 300 units per month from May through August last year.

With a budget of little over 9 billion baht, the Cabinet extended the subsidy for each home that used less than 500 units of power per month beyond August to combat increasing energy costs.

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) conducted raids on roughly 50 cryptocurrency miners in the provinces of Bangkok and Nonthaburi in December of last year because they were stealing power worth 325 million baht annually.

Under the cover name Electrical Shock, the DSI’s cybercrime division looked into 40 buildings in Bangkok and Nonthaburi that they suspected of utilizing power without a permit.

Thai electrical regulators could not monitor their electricity use because of the cryptocurrency investor.

Even though the actual cost was about 500,000 baht, each building only paid 300 to 2,000 baht monthly. The Thai government lost more than 25 million baht per month, or around 325 million baht annually.

The authorities confiscated roughly 2,000 pieces of cryptocurrency mining equipment valued at about 400 million baht.

About 100 pieces of mining equipment were housed in each building, most of which were imported from China. Ironically, China forbids cryptocurrency mining.

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