Welcome To The Real World

Malaysians have been cocooned by our government against real world fuel prices for so long that I guess everybody including me is now aghast that the government has now allowed our fuel prices to now float closer to market prices and will be reviewed on a monthly basis. The result is now the price of petrol has of midnight 5th June 2008 risen forty percent and diesel by more than sixty percent. Nonetheless we should be reminded that this is still no where near real market prices, meaning that the government is still providing some subsidy and the impact will be also cushioned by direct subsidies to Malaysian vehicle owners via a rebate paid when the road tax is renewed, and for citizens like me who owns a vehicle not more than 2000 cc's this means a rebate of around fifty ringgit a month to reduce the bite of the price hike. However the rebate will mean much more to owners of smaller capacity engined cars that consume less petrol as the amount will be a bigger portion of their fuel bill, so the government has also managed to provide subsidy based on actual fuel usage as they have been talking about recently.

Foreign invasion: Thai motorists queueing up at the a petrol kiosk in Rantau Panjang, Kelantan, on Sunday night as word of the impending ban got around.

Hopefully this will now stop more leakages of our government subsidy to non-Malaysian registered cars, even for those Malaysians working in Singapore who claims they deserve such a subsidy for their Singapore registered vehicles. I like this comment in the Sun newspaper today who accurately gave the reasons why these Malaysians do not deserve such subsidies from the Malaysian taxpayers, that reads as follows :

Subsidy is for Malaysian taxpayers

I REFER to the letter by “Disappointed” on Malaysians working in Singapore who are subject to the market price for fuel. I would like to point out that Malaysians working in Singapore do not pay Malaysian income tax as they are subject to tax in the republic.

Secondly, as they drive Singapore-registered vehicles, they do not pay Malaysian road tax, or for that matter even excise duties on purchasing Malaysian cars. So for the life of me, I do not understand why they should be entitled to fill up their Singapore cars with fuel subsidised by Malaysian taxpayers.In the same vein, I would not begrudge a foreigner who is employed in Malaysia and subject to tax laws here the right to fill up his fuel tank with subsidised fuel. It should be made clear that the entitlement to subsidised fuel should apply to Malaysian taxpayers and not all Malaysians. Malaysians who do not contribute to the tax coffers surely should not be entitled to subsidies paid for by other Malaysians.

Malaysian Taxpayer, Johor Baru

More kilometres for money: Singapore-registered vehicles rushing to fill up their tanks with cheaper petrol across the causeway at a petrol station located near the Johor Customs before the blanket ban ruling.

So Malaysians living in Johor with Singapore registered vehicles, stop yapping and pay for your petrol in your area of work, and pay the price accordingly. You already earn big bucks by working there, so do not expectyour Malaysian working brethen to facilitate further your opportunity to earn the bigbucks okay.

Now we all have to brace ourselves to the effect this price rise and the electricity price rise will have on our inflationary rate. With ceilings for a lot of price controlled items now being abolished, this will surely be a painful experience. I just hope that somehow we can tame this beast, as however you look at it a belt-tightening will be in order. And forget about having street protests, grow up as this is your welcome to the real world.

Post-script :

Well all tis hassle about foreign cars now been resolved. Ban already lifted ma. Needless mess for the past few days.