No rise in RON 95 petrol price for now

06 April 2011 - Malsysia Government annouces that RON95 petrol may increase in price though it will not do so in the short term. Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Donald Lim Siang Chai told the Dewan Rakyat that the Government had already taken the appropriate action by raising the price of RON97 petrol last week as world crude oil prices rose.

"However, there is no guarantee that the price of RON95 will remain, since the price of world crude oil price has increased to US$108 a barrel," he said when answering a question by Salahuddin Ayub (Pas-Kubang Kerian) on the government decision to raise the price of RON97.

The price of RON97 petrol saw a 20 sen increase on April 1 to RM2.70 a litre, but the RON95 grade remained at RM1.90. To a question by Datuk Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) on how much the Government has to spend on subsidy to ensure the price remained low, Lim said it had to fork out RM23.1bil for subsidy, incentives and support last year.

From the total, RM14.2bil was for subsidy, RM543.6mil for incentives and RM8.4bil for support, he said. "Subsidy for petrol, diesel and Gas (LPG) was RM9.6bil, cooking oil (RM828mil), sugar (RM708.2mil), rice (RM287.9mil) and flour (RM888.2mil)," he said.

He said through a Subsidy Rationalisation Programme implemented in July 2010 involving sugar and fuel, the Government had saved RM750mil last year. "A subsequent programme implemented on Dec 4, last year involving the subsidy of the two types of petrol will reduce government spending by RM1.18bil."

Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said the government was studying whether to open shops selling foodstuff at discounted prices to help the people face inflation.

Source: Bernama