Thailand’s Prime Minister elect Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday her new government planned to slash benzene, diesel and gasohol prices by removing a levy on them used to subsidise other fuels such as cooking gas. Yingluck said her Puea Thai Party, which won Sunday’s general election in a landslide, would move fast to keep its campaign pledge of scrapping a requirement for oil firms and petrol stations to contribute part of profits to an Oil Stabilisation Fund. “One of six priorities after presenting our government policy to parliament is to scrap the Oil Fund,” Yingluck told a meeting of her economic advisers. Puea Thai won 265 of the 500 seats in the new lower House of Representatives, thumping the ruling Democrat Party, which trailed on 159 seats. Yingluck, younger sister of self-exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, is heading a five-party coalition that controls a 299-seat majority in parliament. Without compulsory contributions to the oil funds, which have been in place since 2007, retail benzene, diesel and gasohol prices at the pumps would drop by between 0.1 baht and 7.5 baht per litre. The oil fund uses money from oil product sales to partly finance heavy subsidies for E-85, E-20, NGV and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) used for cooking, industrial and vehicle fuels. It is unclear whether the scrapping of the oil fund would mean prices - which are currently capped - would rise. The present subsidies are set to expire at the end of September. The Oil Fund has already been drained and is running a debt of 22bn baht ($722mn). Yingluck, 44, is expected to take office in early August. She said other priorities for the new government included bringing down high basic product prices, streamlining heavily subsidized medical programmes, fighting drug addiction, improving relations with neighbouring countries and national reconciliation. Yingluck also yesterday denied news reports that her government would appoint her brother, a former premier and a fugitive from the law, as a trade envoy. Yesterday’s editions of several Thai newspapers reported Yingluck’s incoming government was preparing to name Thaksin Shinawatra, currently living in self-imposed exile in Dubai, as a special trade envoy. “We will not appoint him as a trade envoy but only as a special adviser,” Yingluck said. Thaksin is seen by many as the de-facto leader of the Pheu Thai Party, which won Sunday’s parliamentary election with a clear majority. His younger sister Yingluck, 44, is slated to become Thailand’s first female prime minister once a new coalition government is formed, presumably this month. Her family ties with Thaksin were expected to dog her premiership. Thaksin has been living abroad since 2008 to avoid a two-year jail sentence on an abuse of power conviction. His political opponents including outgoing Prime Minister Abhsiit Vejjajiva have accused Pheu Thai of seeking power to push through an amnesty for Thaksin. In an interview with CNN Tuesday, Yingluck acknowledged that Thaksin’s case would be one of several that would be reviewed as part reconciliation process in the politically divided nation. Thaksin, a former billionaire telecommunications tycoon who was prime minister from 2001 to 2006 before being toppled in a coup, has remained a central player in Thai politics despite his absence. According to his own supporters, he was a key financier behind the anti-government protests that rocked Bangkok last year and led to violent street battles that left 92 people dead. Agencies