Anutin orders probe into street lamp bill scandal

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has ordered an investigation into claims that the cost of public street lighting may have been incorporated into household electricity bills, amid growing public scrutiny over whether consumers have been unfairly bearing the expense.

Mr Anutin said he had instructed the Energy Ministry, the Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) and the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA) to establish how the charges arose, when the practice began and whether the burden had in fact been passed on to electricity users.

"The public must not bear this burden," he said, adding that officials were gathering facts before reporting back to him.

Asked whether the government would intervene if the charges proved to have been transferred to consumers, Mr Anutin said action would be taken.

He described the issue as a long-standing question that had troubled him since his time at the Interior Ministry.

"There has always been something that made me wonder," he said. "At the time, the electricity authorities said they were absorbing the cost of public lighting. My question was: if they were still making a profit, were they really absorbing the cost, and how?"

The prime minister said he has ordered a formal review. If costs had historically been accepted as part of the electricity authorities' expenses, that would be one matter.

However, if they had been added to electricity bills and passed on to consumers, "that is not acceptable, and I will certainly fix it", he said.

Separately, Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn acknowledged reports that public lighting costs had been embedded in the fuel adjustment charge (FT) paid by households.

PEA governor Mongkol Treekijjanon on Tuesday confirmed the cost had been built into bills for more than a decade.