Subsidy on diesel to go first, says Shahrir
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.as...0846&sec=nation

I keep on hearing about subsidies on fuel.

Can someone help me:

What is the actual cost in Malaysia for:
Petrol
Diesel
Natural gas

Also does anyone have the links to check on the CPI - consumer price index. I hope to be able to compare the basket of goods today with that in 1970 and 1980.

I suspect the Stats Dept guys are smoking something when they cook up the figures. I know the US figures are manipulated and I would not be surprise if Malaysia's are.

The current (public) subsidy figures (per litre) for petrol, diesel and natural gas are quite out of date. They were last changed in late 2007, and these data were based on oil prices at the time when the subsidy was last reduced (this was in 2006).

But currently, petrol is RM1.92/L at the subsidized price and the "real" price is RM 2.93/L (which is hard to belive).

My guess is that the real per litre price of petrol is about RM3.30 and rising.


Cannot remember the data for diesel and natural gas but I will try to find it.

You can try the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs website, or the Bank Negara Malaysia.

pm me and I can send you the email for the director of the Economics Department of BNM. You might have to pretend that you are my student tho

Cheers, m

__________________
The world needs more Canada

Nope. Can't find. I tried searching a couple of years back. Search went to Australia and then back to Pulau Bukom, Sg reference price.

Figure I got was about RM 1.38/litre if I am not mistaken.

After that, I never managed to locate it again.

2 years back, someone send me a table of CPI going back to 1980. Lost it. I remembered the basket was changed that year so comparison cannot be made with earlier years.

I did an analysis of RM/SGD exchange rates and I found the curve correlated quite well with who the PM was. The more corrupt the PM, the faster the RM dropped against SGD.

I always took the view that the value of a currency is the marketplace's report on a country's performance. We can b*llsh*t with our growth rate, our CPI, our foreign exchange. But the market always finds out and their assessment is reflected in the exchange rate - ok. this is voodoo economics.

Just cancel the damn road tax system & remove the subsidy.

My family's paying more than RM10k per year on road tax. At current consumption, if the subsidy's removed, we'll be paying RM5k more per year.

BUT, after the removal of subsidy, the traffic on the road will be vastly reduced, thus reducing consumption.

i was in australia last week, and i also believe that this system also being implemented in other countries. where the government do not subsidize any petrol... basically there are price war at petrol station in aussie. some place sell at AUD139 and some AUD 146... if the crude oil price goes down, the petrol also goes down, but if the crude oil goes up, the oil price also up.... so ppl in aussie basically goes for petrol shopping

I was in Thailand last week, the prices at the petrol station are
Diesel : BHT 33.44 / litre
RON91 : BHT34.99 / litre
RON95 : BHT36.09 / litre
Gasohol (10% Ethanol) : BHT32.09 / litre

And I don't really understand why our minister would want to increase the RON to 95 and 99 which will be more expensive to produce. I think we should have RON91 and 95 just like in Thailand and I don't hear any complaints from my friends in Thailand on using lower RON petrol.

And of course, remove the tax on the cars!

Ron 99 is required for higher capacity cars.

We are going to face a future of depleting oil, higher oil prices, pollution, traffic congestion. More cars is not the way to go. Public transport is. I am anxiously waiting for AllUrban's proposal for the Klang Valley Transportation System.

See here for world gas prices...
http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/li...ices/price.html

In USD, lowest is 0.14c/gallon and highest is $5.64/gallon..

so, in comparison, me having to pay $3.8/gallon seems not so bad after all *(must find an electric car)

__________________
Earth Day - Participate in your own way.

In Canada
During summer
Grade 95 - 1.18/L max.
Grade 92 - 1.0/L max.

During winter
Grade 95 - 0.90/L max.
Grade 92 - 0.75/L max.

I m wondering why gov. always said petrol price is very lower , may be there r always compare with currency cov. rate.

Would you mind explaining how you got $3.8/gallon please?
Currency - USD?
Gallon - US Gallon or Imperial gallon?
Please show in RM/litre after final conversion also for comparison.

Thanks.

50 years ago UMNO was talking about planting more rice. Najib speaks as if this problem happened yesterday.

2008/04/26

Cash instead of diesel subsidy for needy groups
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/...icle/index_html

By : Farrah Naz Karim

PUTRAJAYA: The government is looking at ways to channel cash to the
neediest target groups should the diesel subsidy be removed.

.......

current diesel prices in Malaysia are RM1.58 per litre, and the subsidy amount is also RM1 (iirc) which makes the real price of diesel a whopping RMN2.58 +++++++++ (where the plusses represent the increase since the government last lowered the subsidy...

I believe that diesel prices in Canada are about 20 less than petrol prices...

Seriously...if the government can clean up the diesel fuel supplied in Malaysia, then diesel is the way to go.

Cheers, m

__________________
The world needs more Canada

Can you elaborate please?

Remove diesel from the market
Use diesel exclusively for fuel
Increase diesel price to full market price but keep petrol price subsidized.

My take is that we should have full market price for all fuel.
This will cut down on smuggling with attendant need for enforcement officers.
Subsidize all public transport by 75% - govt can buy fleets of buses by open tender, get the best price and lease it the bus operators.
Impose entry RM 10 tax on all cars (except taxis) entering KL between 6am - 10am, 4pm - 8pm.
No subsidy to fishermen. They can raise the price of fishes for all I care. Subsidies are always abused.
0% duty on spare parts
10% duty on transport vehicles, taxis and buses

State govt apply 5000 taxi licenses and dish out by open tender. Applicants to meet psychological test criteria, knowledge of roads, driving skills, courtesy.

(I am going to hide in a cave now.)

Nice try pywong!.. it WON'T happen with BN led gahmen!..they too greedy!.

What i mean is that, if the government can achieve EURO IV standards for the cleanliness of diesel and reduce the sulphur content, then there can be a greater market for diesel-powered vehicles in Malaysia (especially the passengers car markets).

The most modern, fuel efficient diesel cars, trucks and buses (built to EURO IV standards) cannot be used in Malaysia because the quality of the diesel here is too low.

WIth high quality diesel, more Malaysians will be encouraged to purchase diesel cars, which have better mileage (kilometerage?), faster acceleration, and lower overall emissions.

It will take time, but hopefully, Malaysia can achieve higher level of demand for diesel powered cars.

wowow...pretty bold py...better get yourself into the cave asap.

Hmmm...I lived in Canada for 25 years before coming here, and I learned about fuel prices at an early age. My family didnt have a car until I was 6 years old, and the reason for this was because my parents could not imagine facing the oil crisis again. So we lived without a car for a long time.

As I grew older while we were driving, I became sensitive to the nature of the price fluctuations. Even though prices were set in the market about 3 months past, it was always interesting that prices would go up at the pumps on sunday night and right before holiday weekends.

When I started driving, I learned to time my purchases of petrol so that I would buy at the lowest prices, but I learned that alot of other people did the same thing...which meant long queues at the stations offering the older prices.

I cannot tell you the shock that a driver sees when he watches petrol prices increase by 5-10 cents (16-32 sen) per litre but it happens regularly in Canada, usually on Sunday night

Are you ready to pay the real market price of petrol plus the government taxes (which are still being charged) and watch prices fluctuate like they do in Canada?

As for public transport, my view is the NPTA + capital subsidy of 75%-100% for bus operators and 100% for rail operators. Operations subsidy would have to be approximately 30% of farebox revenues. Fares should be maintained at current rates offered by Metrobus, with the RapidKL rate for daily passes.

5000 taxies? I would suggest, a mixture of taxis and regulated minibuses would do the job nicely. Hong Kong has been very successful with their use of buses (4 companies), taxis, ferries (3 companies), unregulated minibuses (red roof), regulated minibuses (green roof), trams (2) and LRT (1), and 8 mass transit rail lines.

Cheers, m

__________________
The world needs more Canada