Saturday, February 03, 2007

Did the Govt Cheats the Rakyat?

I received a nice mail from Zafir and she preferred I called him Apayy.

Apayy had this to say:

Last time, our govt increase the fuel price for reasons that the price of crude oil had hike to US$70/barrel and at the exchange rate of RM3.67, it's RM256.90 per barrel.

But now the price of crude oil is US$53.68 and the exchange rate is RM3.50 which works out to be RM187.88 per barrel. That's a cost difference of RM69.78 per barrel; that is, a saving of more than 27%.

Why is it that the savings is not passed down to the consumers, the rakyat? Isn't this cheating the rakyat?

Apayy wants me to comment; but he had said it all and only morons can't understand and I hope the govt are not filled with moron ministers and MPs. Why aren't the MPs standing up to protest and protect the interests of the rakyat?

Oh Apayy, they are only elected by the rakyat and they are busy enriching themselves; that's why they had no time for the rakyat. Maybe, by the coming nearer of the date of election, you may have some good news... the lowering of fuel price will be made just about the time of election; it will, trust me! Till then, the govt will keep sucking the rakyat dry and unless they had dried up, the sucking continues.

Apayy, let's accept the fact that we elected them to suck us and so they did. Were they wrong or we? Let's ponder.

BTW, the Batu Talam election results proved that we preferred that they continue to do so. That's the decision the rakyat made and it shall then be.

P/S: Apayy, did I write something that disappoint you?

9 comments:

Monsterball said...

Hi Maverick,
Much as I hate paying high fuel prices, like everybody else, I have to say that broad-based fuel-price subsidies have to be phased-out. The physical reality is Malaysia has passed peak oil production. No significant new discoveries have been made for a long time, and oil production will continue to decline. We cannot afford broad-based fuel subsidies in future.
What I'm more concerned about is
a) There's no transparency in how our oil revenues are being spent. This is a diminishing resource, and I'm very concerned it is being squandered on making cronies richer.
b) There's no real effort to improve integrated public transport in all the major cities. Whatever scheme the government comes up with seems primarily aimed at a method to channel cash to some crony or another. KL Monorai, LRT, RapidKL, Putrajaya Monorail, Penang Monorail, JB Maglev - all primarily aimed at making money for cronies.

Anonymous said...

The crude oil price quoted is based on FOB basis. That exclude logistics, processing and distribution cost, tax, operation, promotion and cost of sales.

Anonymous said...

crude oil is NOT the one we use in our cars! It's Petrol, my friend and that came from processing the barrel of oil. If Apayy finds the market prices lower, go ahead and buy a barrel himself and let's see how much "savings" he can make =)

Anonymous said...

Does it make any difference when the price of oil going up or down? What I mean is, when the prise is up then we dont have to spend on "processing cost"?? And when it goes down then we have to pay for the it??

I know what is crude oil and what is petrol. When govt increase the petrol price, they always give reason that it is due to increase of crude oil price around the world. Never once the govt said that it is due to increase of the processing cost or maybe I didnt realize!!!

Logically, if the price of crude oil increase and USD also increase, our govt income should increase also, and they shouldnt have any problem to "subsidize" petrol to the rakyat.

Maybe you can explain more to me anonymous.........I just try to understand!!!

Apayy

Maverick SM said...

Kittykat46, I do agree that subsidies should be phased out. But what and where does the profit and dividend from Petronas goes? A319 and CobraSultan?

Apayy, I totally agree with you. The argument by the two anonymous lacks substance. When the price of fuel is increase it was attributed to crude oil price increase. So, when the price of crude is down, why is it unrelated? Nonsense!

Unknown said...

Yup, rumors had it that the Gomen will decrease the Petrol Price before incoming General Election (GE). Can't wait to see that moment.

It is obvious recently they are channeling the money they saved from petrol price to something else that benefit only a few group of people. How sad.

Furthermore, if the processing of Crude Oil is so expensive, then why Kedah is going to have One big scale of a Refinery Plant? Which processing other countries Crude Oil?

Care to study about this issue Mav?

Anonymous said...

what will be the price of petrol without govt. subsidy ? highest in asia/world?

Maverick SM said...

Terang Bulan,

Malaysia's fuel processing capabilities and technology is in fact on par with the world best. So, the cost of processing is competitive with other nation.

The truth about the net savings from fuel (crude oil) will definitely substantially reduce the subsidies. That's alright and nothing wrong. What's wrong is the fact that the fuel price increase was attributed to the crude price increase and since the price of crude oil is down 27%, it is justifiable to reduce the petrol price proportionately. If the fuel price increase was attributed to the reduction of subsidies so that those money recoup from subsidies will be used for development projects, then it should be clear and transparent.

What matter to us is the system of cover-up and the poor management of the nations resources and revenues.

Anonymous said...

check this out for comparison (it's a little outdated but still relevant i think):

http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/global_gasprices/

Venezuela - US$0.12 for a gallon!!!

Malaysia after conversion to USD at 3.5005 is US$2.08/gallon.