Voicing strong criticism against government policies pertaining to petroleum products and development projects, Malaysians are demanding to know the rationale behind the price hike.

Effective today, the price of diesel in Peninsular Malaysia increased by 23 percent to RM1.58 per litre while petrol will now cost 19 percent more at RM 1.92 per litre.

In addition to being shocked, this is what opposition parties had to say.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng

The DAP strongly condemns the 30 sen increase in the price of petroleum products. The move is highly irresponsible and uncaring of the financial burdens of Malaysians including wage earners, low-income groups and small-time businessmen.

With petrol prices and inflation rising, how are wage-earners going to cope when their salaries do not go up?

Furthermore, why should the government increase the price of petroleum by 20 percent or 30 sen per litre when the international price of crude oil dropped yesterday by US$2 per barrel or two percent to US$61?

Normally petroleum prices increase when the price of crude oil increases but the government must justify its case for doing so when the price of crude oil is going down.

With the latest price increase, the difference is not far off. The DAP proposes that the government allows the price of petroleum products to increase to its market price provided that Petronas distributes its profits to the people.

The company's profit for the 2004-2005 financial year was at least RM35.5 billion excluding the RM31.2 billion paid to the government in the form of taxes, duties and royalty payments. This would allow every Malaysian to take home at least RM1,500 per annum.

For the latest financial year 2005-2006, Petronas is expected to increase its profit to nearly RM50 billion, allowing each and every Malaysian (to take home) nearly RM2,000 each.

Such an approach would have three-fold benefits by not creating market distortion in the actual prices of our products, improve efficiency and cut down losses due to smuggling of our cheaper fuel overseas.

The government has claimed that fuel-smuggling has led to losses of up to RM750 million.

The DAP rejects as ridiculous and unreliable the explanation that the financial savings from the increase in the price of petroleum products would be used to finance development projects and improve the public transport system for the benefit of the people.

Clearly the latest 30 sen increase would cover all the subsidies borne by the government of RM7.41 billion. Are people going believe the explanation that the RM7.41 billion saved would be used to finance development projects and improve the transportation system?

If so, what happened to the billions of ringgit saved over the last two years when the price of diesel and petrol were increased by nearly 50 percent?

The DAP also regrets the secretive and surreptitious manner in which the price increase was announced at 10.30 pm to prevent motorists from queuing up to pump petrol before the price increase.

Such a secretive approach does not inspire confidence and trust in the government handling of the economy for their benefit but create suspicions that it is more interested in allowing petroleum companies to enjoy the price increase.

PAS vice-president Husam Musa

We will be staging a protest at KLCC on Friday and submit a memorandum to the government as part of a nationwide protest.

We want the pricing of petroleum products to be reviewed We also want to tell the government not to take its power for granted.

The people are totally shocked at both the timing of the announcement and the increase. The government didn't even drop any hints... this shows a people-unfriendly administration.

This also reveals the lack of any plans to use Petronas' profit to cushion the impact of global oil price movements. I expect the 30 sen hike to slow down the country's economic growth in addition to burdening the people by increasing their living costs.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat Youth vice-president Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin:

The price hike will lead to a larger income gap in Malaysia. We are giving the PM seven days to immediately reverse the increase, failing which we will mobilise a nationwide protest beginning March 3 in front of KLCC.

We strongly oppose the move which has an adverse impact on Malaysians particularly the middle- and lower-income groups.

We insist that the price increase is totally unjustified due to the drop in world oil prices since 2005. Throughout last year, the petrol price has risen from RM1.10 to RM1.60 and is now at RM1.90.

An increase in land tax, water rates, the new electricity tariff next month coupled with higher petrol prices will clearly burden the people.

Unfortunately, the salary increment announced for government servants does not reflect the simultaneous increase of prices of goods. These worsen individual inequality in Malaysia compared with other countries.