Gas soars to Bt30 a litre

[wowpow]

OIL PRICE
Belt-tightening top of Cabinet agenda

"The Cabinet will debate belt-tightening measures on Tuesday as petrol prices continue to spread gloom across the country. "With the soaring oil price, it is vital to find ways to cut costs and not just complain," Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Vanasatidya said.

Chidchai said he had already asked his colleague Wissanu Krea-ngam to map out cost-saving measures in order to ensure that government agencies stayed within their budgets despite the increased cost of energy. He said he would discuss the impact on the economy with the National Economic and Social Development Board in the near future. Commenting on the Royal Thai Police's concern about its budget being insufficient to cover the increased oil price, he said police as well as other agencies could reallocate money from non-essential spending plans to compensate.
"State revenues for the next fiscal year are expected to stay on course, so the government has only a single problem to overcome: energy price," he said.

He vowed to try and boost exports and inbound tourist arrivals in order to balance out the more expensive oil imports. In regard to police measures to cope with the oil-price hike, Maj-General Sumeth Ruangsawat, commander of Patrol and Special Operations Division, said many patrol cars had switched to gasohol. Patrol routes have been redesigned to focus on areas with high crime rates and high security risks, he said. "The public can help police to save petrol costs by refraining from committing crimes," he said. Highway Police commander Maj-General Suwira Songmetta said funds earmarked for petrol had dried up with six months still to go in the fiscal year. Suwira said the Budget Bureau allocated petrol money based on a price of Bt10 a litre. To overcome the budgetary constraints, he said, he reallocates funds from car maintenance. The oil-price hike has affected the number of dispatches to road accidents.

The Sawang Prateep Foundation, a charity for rescue work in Chon Buri's Sri Racha district, said petrol expenses had soared from Bt30,000 a month to Bt50,000 for its fleet of five emergency vehicles."

The Nation Saturrday 6th May 2006

The Pearl "The public can help police to save petrol costs by refraining from committing crimes,"

The Pearl "The public can help police to save petrol costs by refraining from committing crimes,"I must jump to Pearl's defence here. There is no truth to the rumour that the Pattaya Carpet Bowls Club is selling illicit petrol

[Aunty]

Well that's a joke if ever I saw one! If only the petrol here in New Zealand cost 30 Baht a litre! Try 43 Baht a litre for 91 Octane. God alone knows what it must be costing in the UK and other parts of the EU!

in the UK last week the average cost of petrol (gas for the yanks) hit ┬г1 a litre.

yikes...... 70 baht

The Pearl "The public can help police to save petrol costs by refraining from committing crimes,"I must jump to Pearl's defence here. There is no truth to the rumour that the Pattaya Carpet Bowls Club is selling illicit petrol

How these silly things get started: It was all for a good cause: Pearl's Gin Fund: bitch tried recycling Vasaline.

[jinks]

in the UK last week the average cost of petrol (gas for the yanks) hit ┬г1 a litre.

yikes...... 70 baht

That is $8.30 per US Gallon !!!!

[elephantspike]

1 US Gallon = 3.78451178 Litres

wieghts and measures (http://education.yahoo.com/reference/weights_and_measures/index?p=volume)

┬г1 = $1.2727 USD

Currency Converter (http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?amt=1&from=EUR&to=USD)

3.78451178 X 1.2727 = 4.81655982....

Therefore, gas (or petrol) at ┬г1 per litre equals aproximately $4.82 USD per gallon.

Oops! my mistake. I was using Euros, not Pounds Sterling.

┬г1 = $1.859099 USD. So I come out with around $7.04 per gallon. Still pretty damn steep!

I am a bike rider myself, thank goodness!

Spike.
I think you got that wrong.
$1 = what in GBP.
I think your calculation is in Euros

[elephantspike]

Exactly right. I realized that just after I posted. See my edit above

30 baht per litre comes out to about $3 per gallon, which is about what it is in the US, but more than double that in the UK.

[Marsilius]

According to Collins English Dictionary, 1 Imperial (UK) gallon = 4.55 litres while 1 US gallon = 3.79 litres.

Therefore if 1 UK litre currently costs about ┬г1, a gallon of pterol in the UK would cost about ┬г4.55 (or $8.46)

The smaller US gallon at the same rate would cost about $7.04

[elephantspike]

Right. Imperial gallons. That was the confusion (aside from Eoros and Pounds), but anyway, more to the point, why so bloody expensive in the UK?

[Marsilius]

Fuel tax.

[Marsilius]

FROM THE BBC WEBSITE:


UK FUEL TAX: THE FACTS

The price of fuel in the UK is a complicated business and it changes month to month as the cost of crude oil rises and falls with international demand.
British drivers also pay two taxes on the petrol they buy at the pump: Fuel Duty and VAT. Of these, fuel duty remains by far the most significant - and remains the most controversial.

FUEL DUTY

If a litre of unleaded petrol costs 85p, 21.7p will be the production costs and profit, around 51p will be duty and 12.5p will be VAT on top of all that.

According to figures released with the 2000 Budget, the Government forecasts that fuel duties will continue to rise rapidly from a ┬г21.6bn in the 1998-99 financial year to ┬г23.3bn by the end of the 2000-01 financial year.

It's a lot of tax, but the Institute of Fiscal Studies, an independent think tank, says that the large rises in fuel duty began as far back as 1979.

FUEL ESCALATOR

The major change in petrol taxation came under the Conservatives in 1993 with the introduction of the Fuel Price Escalator.

The escalator was designed as a means both to raise money and discourage car use on environmental grounds.

At the time, British fuel was the third-cheapest in Europe. It is now the most expensive.

The annual fuel escalator was set in 1993 at 3% above the rate of inflation.

On its introduction it added three pence to a litre of fuel and raised the tax burden on unleaded petrol to 72.8% of the total cost.

When the Conservatives left office in 1997, the escalator was at 5% and had contributed a 11.1 pence rise to the cost of unleaded fuel. Tax as a proportion of total cost stood at 76.3%.

LABOUR'S RECORD

On taking office, the new chancellor Gordon Brown increased the fuel escalator further and put three pence onto a litre of petrol in his first Budget. That pushed taxes up to 81.5% of the total price of fuel.

While duty rose by two pence a litre as part of the 2000 Budget, Gordon Brown also scrapped the fuel price escalator, saying that future increases would be decided on the basis of the "due Budget process".

At the time, and perhaps rather ironically given current events, the AA said that it was the first budget in seven years in which "drivers can take some heart".

According to the Tories this isn't good enough.

They say that since Labour came to office, the petrol pump price of unleaded petrol has risen by around 71%.

And while there have been large jumps in the price of oil, the party blames what it says is Labour's 16p per litre rise in taxes.

Figures from the Institute of Fiscal Studies tell a slightly different story. The Conservative figure of 16p per litre is a combination of duty and VAT.

While the actual amount brought in by VAT rises with increases in fuel prices and duty, it is calculated at the same 17.5% level which the present government inherited from the Conservatives.

VAT CAMPAIGNING

Fuel campaigners argue that VAT should only be calculated on the cost of the fuel rather than on the fuel and the duty together.

If VAT was not charged on the duty, the motorist would save around 8p per litre at September 2000 prices. None of the parties appear to support that move.

Leaving aside VAT, fuel duty increases under Labour amount to 12 pence per litre - just slightly more than the rise caused by the escalator under the Conservatives.

Because of the rise in world oil prices, the proportion of the total fuel cost that is tax has fallen from 85% (March 1998) to 72.3% today - still one of the highest levels in the world - something that ministers have sought to stress in interviews.

With the Tories pledging a three pence a litre cut should they come to power, the question is whether the Government should cut fuel duty - and whether the country can afford it.

[wowpow]

There is a strong arguement for making taxes on fuel very high. Fuel costs effect almost everything in life. High costs make economising worthwhile and penalises heavy users and sqanderers.

There seems to be little worthwhile arguement for subsidising fuel prices but some Asian countries still do such as Malaysia.

It not 30 baht per liter in Pattaya. Only 29.41.

It not 30 baht per liter in Pattaya. Only 29.41.

Is that Thai price or Farang Price :geek: