The sharp rise in petrol and diesel prices was described by DAP national vice-chairperson M Kulasegaran today as the “inevitable hangover after the binge of government spending” on such items as government handouts, combined with the effects of corruption and wastage.

“Only the BN government will pretend that the latest round of petrol and diesel prices is ‘mild’ and therefore bearable by the rakyat,” said the MP for Ipoh Barat.

“The ordinary person will reject the pretence because an increase as sharp as this one is felt across the spectrum of goods and services he or she uses.

“Since this spectrum is actually basic necessities, the impact of this sharp increase means that the person in the street will be hit in every imaginable way,” declared the federal legislator.

Kulasegaran ( left ) described the steep rise in petrol and diesel price as the “inevitable hangover after the binge of government spending”.

He added: “The Umno-BN government has been irresponsible in choosing to give handouts twice under the Bantuan Rakyat IMalaysia (FRIM) scheme before last year’s general election because the payments were inaffordable.

"Now the government will have to cover the deficits forced by its binge spending by gouging the ordinary rakyat with steep rises in fuel prices.

"What had seemed like government generosity is now exposed as fiscal irresponsibility.

"The people are now punished after they had first been lulled into complacency on the real state of national finances."

Kulasegaran said when the goods and services tax (GST) is introduced next April, the possibility existed that petrol and diesel would not be exempted and that would lead to another round of fuel price increases, with the consequent rises in the costs of basic necessities.

“More pain for the ordinary person is in store and more deception by the government as to the real cause of the increases, which is actually fiscal irresponsibility,” he added.

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