Petrol head

(The top glamours)

Petrol price is Malaysia rose again yesterday, from RM1.92 to RM2.70, by 79 cents.. It was a huge huge amount, almost by 40% increase.. so yesterday, every car packed to any petrol station just to pump in the last drop of "cheap petrol", resulting in severe petrol shortage.. Traffic transportation and river transportation are all suspended, resulting in havoc in almost every part of Malaysia.

The price of petrol in Malaysia is considered one of the cheapest in the world, due to subsidy by our petroleum company Petronas. Petronas is one of the leading oil company of in the world, with one of the world's tallest building in the world as office. Compared with the price in India of Rs60 per litre (RM4.60), Petronas had already subsidized a lot, in fact, most of the profit (about 30%) earned by the company are handed to Federal Government to subsidy the price. That is why we, Malaysians are still having the cheapest oil price in the world. Even with 2.70, it is still comparatively low.

However, for example, how much a Singaporean earn and how much a Malaysian earn in term of Capitol income? Msians earn only 1/3 of what a Singaporeans are earning. Petrol price in Singapore? $RM 5.20, so comparatively we're still at the losing side (they pay twice the amount of petrol but get back thrice in their income). The first impact will be on the citizens.. We're earning less but paying more on petrol. The standard of living will be a big hit. Food prices will go up, almost every items will be more expensive due to increased transportation fee; bus fare will increase, flight fare increase, less people traveling means less mobility in business and less tourism, so business continue to drop.. As income is less, employees suffer more in life, so they tend to earn it the "easy" way, causing increased crime rate. The inflation will be higher as everything become costlier, buying power of the people reduce, life quality will be less.. Already the people in Malaysia are earning hard, buying hard, and living in danger all the time due to super high crime rate here, our life quality will continue to be in jeopardy. Besides, as people do not live happily and safely, they'll start blaming the government, leading to political unrest and instability.

Is it a genuine business point of view to remove the oil subsidy in order to improve the overall economy? Will the reduction in road tax lessen our burden? Or everything is just another way of the federal government sucking up more money from the profit of their largest money making machine? The long term effect is yet to be seen. Hopefully, it'll turn out fine, though i seriously doubt it.. God bless Malaysia..

(The low suffers)