An Activist Srisuwan Janya, the secretary-general of the Association to Protect the Thai Constitution has come out to share information related to purchases made by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). Srisuwan is well known in Thailand for raising debatable issues relating to the government. Srisuwan has raised another question, the EGAT has purchased Gas Detectors at the price of 350,431 per detector, but the same purchase, when checked online, is priced at about 12,000 THB while available on Alibaba for about 5,000 THB.
Srisuwan suggests perhaps this connects to the sudden rise in electric bills that many people in Thailand have faced in the last month. The government has given a 3% discount to electric bills for 3 months due to Covid-19, but it hasn’t been helping much adding to the shocking receipts where some people have received bills that are 2-3X higher than their usual electricity cost per month. The association has discovered that the EGAT has purchased SF6 portable gas leakage detector for a project called Supply and Construction of 500/230kv (GIS). The same gas detector was found on Alibaba for 5,303 THB. Srisuwan asked what is special about the gas detectors EGAT purchased along with commenting that they might be decorated with diamonds.
The association has asked the EGAT to address the issue of purchasing overpriced supplies, but there has yet to be a clear answer. Srisuwan states that the documents have come from trustable sources, meaning from EGAT internal personnel. Srisuwan stated “The importance of allowing the purchase of overpriced goods is taken into the overall cost. These costs are calculated into the electricity management costs that directly affect consumers in the nation represented in the FT price. The government should stop lying to the people in the age of social media. The people are not stupid, the world has no secrets”.
FB Caption: “The government should stop lying to the people in the age of social media. The people are not stupid, the world has no secrets”.
Source: Sanook, Facebook user: Srisuwan Janya