DAP secretary-general MP Lim Guan Eng has denounced the 15 sen increase in petrol prices, and the partial withdrawal of cooking oil subsidies.

Lim said this made a "mockery" of the RM200 increase in BR1M cash vouchers announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak during his Budget 2017 speech last week.

The hike was "unjustified and completely unsympathetic" to the economic hardships of ordinary Malaysians, said Lim, who is also Penang chief minister and Bagan MP.

"This is a classic case of giving with the right hand but taking back much more with the left hand," he said.

He was referring to the hike in RON95, which will now be priced at RM1.95 per litre, while RON97 costs RM2.30 per litre and diesel at RM2 a litre.

Lim noted that since March this year, diesel prices have risen by 48 percent, RON95 by 22 percent and RON97 by 18 percent.

"The rise in petrol and cooking oil prices will only add on to the burden of consumers."

According to Lim's calculation, the rise in cooking oil is expected to add up to RM50 per person per year.

For a family of five, this would work out to RM250 extra costs annually.

This is much more than the RM200 increase in BR1M offered by the 2017 budget to the lowest income groups, Lim noted.

"Clearly lower income families do not gain from the increase in BR1M as promised by BN propaganda, but are in fact cheated by the accompanying price rises such as cooking oil and petrol prices by the BN federal government," Lim said.

He also condemned Budget 2017 as having "no economic significance" in improving the livelihood of poorer families with only 18 percent of the budget devoted to development expenditure.

"Clearly BN is still haunted by the RM52 billion 1MDB scandal and the RM4.2 billion donation scandal that has caused the current drop in the value of the ringgit, the imposition of the much-hated goods and service tax and the economic downturn."