PM Badawi announced yesterday that petrol will be increased from RM1.92 to RM2.70 at midnight, while household electricity will increase by 19% in July. As if life wasn’t already exciting enough, he made the announcement in the afternoon knowing full well that people will rush to the pumps. As a result, the entire town (and probably Malaysia) went into a stand-still because of the panic buying - the photo below was taken an hour after the announcement. He also gave the assurance that we won’t be affected adversely. An annual rebate of RM625 (amounting to rebate for 800 litres) will be given, via money order, to owners of vehicles 2,000cc and below. The electricity increase also won’t affect those whose monthly usage is 200kW and below. Diesel subsidies for transporters will still be maintained and the government will still be subsidizing essential goods, hence, prices for food, etc. shouldn’t increase. What a load of bull! If no one gets affected then why bother with the price increase? Firstly, I think the rebates are stupid because that’s assuming that everyone uses 800 litres per car per year. Many urban families have 2~3 cars - dad drives to work everyday and mom drives to market occasionally. If dad is doing sales he’s covered by petrol allowance, while, mom won’t use much petrol since it’s a short distance to the neighbourhood market. Some of us use different cars for different needs, and not all the cars are used at all times. For example, we have 3 cars - a Suzuki Vitara, Honda City and Honda CRV. The Vitara is used for only short distance around the neighbourhood, the City is when we drive to town and the CRV for going outstation. Looking at the above, isn’t it possible that the government could be spending more money with this new mechanism than previously? I think we can save more money if we didn’t have corruption, like paying RM200 for a cheap screwdriver! Next, it’s a real insult to our intelligence to say that we won’t be affected. Maybe not directly, but things WILL become more expensive …in fact, much more expensive. These increases will hit businesses hard and they will in turn pass the cost to consumers as they’ve always done. Inflation is going to hit the roof and the government will increase interest rates to try to contain it, then our loans will also become more expensive. An ex-NTU roommate called last night and I was lamenting to him that our cost of living is now higher than in Singapore, if you compared dollar-to-dollar: 1) An Engineer In KL 2) An Engineer In Singapore Sigh! Update: read Dr. Mahathir’s views about the petrol increase.
- starting salary RM2,300
- cost of petrol RM2.70/litre
- cost of Honda City 1.5 (A) VTEC RM89,000
- home loan interest > 5.5%
- cost of noodles at hawker center RM4.50
- starting salary S$2,600
- cost of petrol S$2.10/litre
- cost of Honda City 1.5 (A) VTEC S$63,000
- home loan interest > 3.5%
- cost of noodles at hawker center S$3.50
Frankly, i don’t know why Badawi do this when his job is at stake. If i were him, i would continue subsidize the fuel prices. Probably even increasing the fuel subsidy since i know i probably would not survive as a PM for another 6 months. Whoever who plotted to get me out, then has to takeover a shit hole with depleting government funds (due to the ever increasing subsidy because of soaring oil prices), and if they have to cut subsidy, they will inur the wrath of people. And all malaysians would miss me…
He’s afterall not a very smart politician….
Comment by arm chair critic on June 5, 2008 at 9:20 am
Seems like Badawi is learning from Singapore… Increase GST, but give off-set bonuses… Hmm
Comment by Vic on June 5, 2008 at 2:17 pm
He even tries to justify it by comparing petrol price with Singapore’s, i.e. RM2.70 against RM5.20 - what the hell? It’s not like our salary here is 2x Singapore’s.
Comment by Larry on June 5, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I am very disappointed with Abdullah…He is even worse than Mahathir. Today he announce the allowance will be cut 10 % for all minsiters… RM 10,000 - 10 % = RM 9,000 still consider getting a lot for most people. If he dare to cut the allowance to 40 % as same high as petrol hike, I will definately support the petrol hike.
People who sit in the office with air-con will never understand why the people suffering outside under the sun, they also don’t understand the criminal cases increase is also part of the consequence of inflation..
Comment by James on June 10, 2008 at 2:53 pm
It is unthinkable, stupid and unconsiderated decision of our government.They just dont care about the rakyat. crimes are rising within the times the petrol has hiked, business are slow,many people are jobless now..What are they trying to proved !Let’s be ready for more surprises!! Childish as i put it…Once proud…but aint now.
Comment by Brad on June 29, 2008 at 11:16 pm
I think many Malaysians disagree with this increase, I remember Najib’s thought about not increasing the petrol price before the general election on March. It is sooo untrue
Comment by Norhafidz on October 6, 2008 at 2:20 pm