POH: Come next month, the
government will review prices of all
petroleum products, including the
RON95 petrol, before deciding to
retain them or otherwise, Domestic
Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Minister Ismail Sabri
Yaakob said today. He said the price revision to be
conducted by the ministry and other
agencies such as the finance ministry
and the Performance Management
and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) would
determine whether prices would be maintained or increased, depending
on the government's subsidies. "According to Pemandu's subsidy
rationalisation plan, there will be a
revision every six months for
subsidies on all products. "The last revision we had for diesel, LPG
and RON95, was in December,
last year. "This means that a mid-year revision will be carried out
this month or early
June… I can't say what will happen but the revision will take place
and
the government's subsidy burden is high," he told reporters after
officiating at the Ipoh Umno division
delegates meeting here today. He said this when asked on the
current price of RON95 petrol,
following the increase in price of On
April 2, the price of RON97, which
was floated according to current
petrol prices, rose 20 sen to RM2.70 per litre, following the Middle
East
crisis, while the price of RON95
increased by five sen to RM1.90 per
litre last December. Ismail Sabri said that although he
had previously stated that petrol
prices would not go up at the
moment, it did not guarantee petrol
prices would stay the same forever,
because the government was already burdened with subsidies for
petroleum products. "Last year, the government's subsidy for
petroleum products was RM8
billion when world fuel prices shot up,
and we don't see signs that it will drop. If this continues, the
government will bear RM18 billion in
subsidies this year, an increase of
RM10 billion," he said. He said that should subsidies be
reduced, the RM10 billion could be
used to build more schools, village
roads, housing projects and
educational aid. - Bernama
No comments:
Post a Comment