MP: Will subsidy return when oil price rebounds?
Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran has queried whether the government will reinstate subsidies when the fuel price rebounds, after Putrajaya abolished it in favour of a managed float system amid falling global oil price.
Ipoh Barat MP M Kulasegaran has queried whether the government will reinstate subsidies when the fuel price rebounds, after Putrajaya abolished it in favour of a managed float system amid falling global oil price.
"It is a matter of time that world oil price will rebound and without government subsidy, prices for RON95 and diesel are going to rise under the managed float system.
"The government must therefore give an undertaking that when oil price goes up, subsidy must be reintroduced so as not to burden the people," he said in a statement today.
The DAP lawmaker also criticised the government's opaque calculation of fuel price under the managed float system.
This is after diesel price went up by three sen under the system today despite the continued decline in global oil price.
"While the government has benefited, Malaysians are going to face higher costs of goods due to the chain effect caused by the increased diesel price.
"How is it possible that when world crude oil has been falling and when petrol price can go down, that diesel is going up instead?
"The government certainly owes the public an explanation," he said.
The retail price for RON95 fell by four sen to RM2.26 while RON97 dropped by nine sen to RM2.46.
Echoing this was DAP's Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong who lamented the managed float system was being arbitrarily determined by the government.
"No one in their right mind would expect pump prices of petrol or diesel to go up while crude oil price continues to head south massively since June 2014.
"The pump diesel price should follow industrial diesel prices, which is much lower now," he said.
Liew urged the government to release the details on how the managed float is established.
"Otherwise it is just a name for “fuel tax” – Malaysians paying the government to plug its fiscal holes," he said.
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