MCA is questioning whether the government has been quietly taking away RM1.2 billion of oil money from the rakyat’s pockets over the past two months as international crude oil prices have fallen.

This follows the announcement by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng that the petrol Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM) will be reactivated next month.

MCA Central Committee member Lau Chin Kok said despite international crude oil prices being on the downtrend since November, the government had been taking the “no comments, no response and no adjustment” stand.

Lau added that the Finance Minister seemed more obsessed with targeting MCA and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College, rather than tackling more important local and international economic issues.

In a statement today, Lau said that based on 2017 petrol consumption, Malaysia consumes an average of 803,000 barrels, or 127,677,000 litres of petrol per day, as one barrel equals to 159 litres.

Lau provided a calculation as follows:

He said the above profit was calculated by multiplying the profit margin with 127,677,000 litres over seven days. For instance, from Nov 8 to 14, when the profit margin was two sen per litre, the calculation is:

RM0.02 X 127,677,000 X 7 days = RM17,874,780.00

And from 20 to 24 December, when there were five days when the government earned 30 sen per litre, the calculation is:

RM0.30 X 127,677,000 X 5 days = RM191,515,500.00

”By this simple calculation, we found that, when international oil prices were spiralling southward, the government, instead of subsidising the petrol price, had actually gained from the price difference quietly.

“We want Guan Eng to clear the air as to whether the government had actually gained this considerable sum, and what usage has it been put to,” Lau said.

According to Lim, Putrajaya currently sets fuel prices on a monthly average basis which will only be reflected the following month.

"The changes in the price of fuel in December 2018 will only result in a reduction in fuel prices in January 2019," he had said.

Lim had also announced that Putrajaya will be returning to a weekly float for the RON95 petrol price from Jan 1 onwards.

"This will allow consumers to benefit faster from reductions in the fuel prices," he had said, adding that Putrajaya will cap the RON95 petrol price at a maximum of RM2.20 per litre and diesel at RM2.18 per litre in the near future, should crude oil prices increase.