A few days before the petrol price hike, our Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs Minister told the Malaysian public that the increase will take place in August. Then suddenly on March 4th, the Prime Minister announced that the new price for fuel will take into effective immediately after midnight.
During the same press conference, the Prime Minister took great lengths to explain that now the subsidies will be constant - at RM 0.30 per liter. Price for fuel will be revised on a quarterly basis but one thing will remain constant - the RM 0.30 per liter subsidy.
Based on the formula, if the international market price of fuel were to increase by RM 1 per litre, our pump price will also increase at the same rate - to RM 3.70 because the Government will only subsidise RM 0.30 per litre. If not for the Government's intervention, the price then would have been RM 4.00 per litre.
Notwithstanding the fact that our country is better off when the international crude oil price goes up, the Minister's statement yesterday is not in conformance to the formula announced by the Prime Minister.
Price of crude oil fluctuates everyday. If the subsidy remains on a constant value of RM 0.30 per litre, Malaysians should start getting used to fluctuations to the pump prices every 3 months.
Although Malaysians there is a sense of "relief" with the Minister's statement, one no longer knows whether it will or will not truly materialise. The Government announced that the price will increase in August but it did not happen that way.
Though it is to our favour (if there won't be any hike till March 09'), the Government seemed so determined to keep the subsidy constant at RM 0.30 per litre. But now it seems they are willing to fork out more if necessary.
All being said, one fact remains...if price of fuel go up to US$200/barrel, our country should be flushed with money earned from oil exports. There is no reason for the Minister to set the "point of reference" of US$200/barrel as the point of trigger for another increase claiming that it could no longer afford to provide subsidies.
If price of oil reaches US$200/barrel, not only will Malaysia have more than sufficient funds for development, enhancing public transport, subsidies but we will also have abundance in inheritance for our future generations.
All this is only possible if only we manage what we have today with great care and accountability.
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3 comments:
Yea...sometimes what you see is not what you get. "looks like it", "sounds like it"...but its not what u think it is.
Here we go again " FLIP...FLOP"
I suggest someone buy up Malaysia.
End of story for the crapass government.
:D
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