We refer to the malaysiakini report Petronas pushing for gas price hike.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/72525

We agree with the recent statement by Energy, Water and Communications Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik that we are spending so much on the gas subsidies at the expense of our future generations.

Subsidies, be it for oil or gas, makes them artificially cheap and encourages wasteful consumption. This is bad for the country as it accelerates the depletion of our oil reserves.

Taxes and royalties from oil and gas now amount to about 38 % of the government's revenue. How will the country be financed when the oil runs out?

Furthermore, Hassan Marican, president and chief executive officer of Petronas has been quoted as saying that if local demand of oil continues to grow at four percent per annum, we will become a net importer by 2010.

Yet with the removal of subsidies, prices will go up and it would cause hardship to consumers especially those in the lower income group. Therefore before the subsidies are removed, some concrete actions will have to be taken to make the rise in costs acceptable.

One of the many things that can be done is to ensure that each town or city has an efficient public transport system with reasonable fares. Such a move would encourage less use of private motor vehicles and would also benefit the lower income group which depends heavily on public transport.

Road taxes on motor vehicles that are petrol guzzlers should also be increased many times to discourage their use.

Higher costs of goods and services will be more acceptable if there is seen to be an end to wastage of public funds by government departments. The level of wastage as reported by the Auditor- General year after year is totally unacceptable.

Yes, subsidies will have to be removed for the sake of future Malaysians. But if consumers have to tighten their belts, so must the government.

The writer is president, Consumers Association of Penang .