Yes! Oil prices fall after mixed US petroleum data.  

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil has fallen to US$49.370 and it is US$45.170 for Light Crude. These figures were reported by Channel NewsAsia TV news on yesterday at 12.50pm.

However today, Channel NewsAsia reported that due to Global oil glut pressures prices; WTI is below US$45 while Brent is US$49.52 for September delivery and set to continue to decline.

But there are others who have reported slightly higher prices; US$49.59 for a barrel of Brent and US$45.15 for WTI. Whatever the prices had gone down below US$50.00 a barrel. This is good for consumers by and large.

Apparently, everybody knew this (price decline) will take place in 2015 and so are not  surprised at the price crashes of crude oils.

But one thing that is most disheartening and frustrating is that petrol prices are not relatively fixed.

In good times when crude oil prices had skyrocketed, consumers were then paying hefty prices for petrol and for petrol produces like cooking gas, etc, etc.

That was all right since a barrel of crude was then sold for US$120 and more.

There you go! Where is the rationale to sell a litre of RON95 for RM2.05 today, when crude oil prices have roughly crashed down to below 40 percent or rather less than US$48 a barrel.

In fact, at today’s market prices for crude oils, the government should fixed the selling price for RON95 at RM1.06 per litre.

Why? Because the old price for RON95 was about RM2.30 a litre. So, at 40 percent it should bring the price down to RMO.92 sen. Adding RM0.06 sen for the Godds and Services Tax (GST), the price for a litre of RON95 should then be sold at RM0.98 sen.

There you go, there is profiteering in selling RON95 at RM2.05 sen.

Hypothetically speaking, when businessmen sell their goods and services at higher prices they will be pulled up by the government for profiteering and subsequently issued a summons.

Now who is going to tell the government that they are profiteering?

This is addressed to the Consumer and Domestic Trade Ministry to take a genuine review on the matter and use the sliding rule correctly to bring down the selling prices of petrol, not by ONLY 10 sen, to RM1.06 for a litre RON95 if they cannot sell it at RM0.98 sen.

The government is treating the rakyat like monkeys with 10 sen! But they have forgotten that the rakyat are not fools all the time.

LAU BING is a community activist and writer in Subang Jaya.