By Ling Hui
KUCHING, March 11: The actual price of RON 95 has soared to RM3.70 per litre since yesterday (March 10).
However, with Malaysia’s fuel subsidy mechanism in place, RON 95 is capped at RM2.05 per litre, meaning that the government is absorbing RM1.65 per litre or 44.6 per cent of the actual fuel price.
The same goes for diesel which has a ceiling price of RM2.15 per litre, but the actual cost has exceeded RM4 per litre.
The price of RON 97, on the other hand, has ballooned by RM0.30 this week and is now RM3.75 per litre.
In early February, between February 3 to 9, RON 97 was priced at RM3.12 per litre and now costs RM0.63 more in just a month.
Amid the hike in crude oil prices driven by the Russia-Ukraine war, which pushed crude oil prices to over USD100 (RM418) a barrel, the government is looking into replacing the current policy with a targeted fuel subsidy for the needy instead.
In Parliament yesterday, Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said the government could be paying up to RM28 billion in subsidies for petrol, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) this year if the blanket subsidy programme is continued.
He also said the RM2.05 per litre retail price for petrol in Malaysia is relatively low compared with countries like Saudi Arabia where it is RM2.59 per litre, RM3.74 per litre in Indonesia, RM5.63 per litre in Thailand, and RM9.16 per litre in Singapore.
Thus, he asserted that the government would review the fuel subsidy mechanism to provide focused aid and subsidy for the vulnerable and those in need. — DayakDaily
