Saturday, August 02, 2008

Keep Petrol Price High

The crude oil price has dropped in the past few weeks. In Malaysia, where petrol price at pumps is set by the government, there are already calls to review the price. “High petrol price has caused inflation!” These people claimed.

Let’s make the thing clear: Inflation is caused mainly by the rising commodity price, which in turn is caused by rising transportation charge and fertilizer cost. Trucks and buses run on diesel, not petrol. Taxis run on either diesel or natural gas. Airlines don't buy jet fuel from your neighborhood petrol kiosks. You won’t save a lot of money even if the government reduces the petrol price from RM2.70/liter to RM2.50/liter.

Should the diesel price be reduced? When the government hiked the diesel price in June, truck firms jumped on this opportunity to raise their transportation charge. However, I seriously doubt they would respond should the diesel price go down.

For that matter, I prefer to see the petrol price remains high. It may also be pointless to reduce the diesel price unless the government can force the truck firms to also lower their charges. We should, instead, do something to save the environment.

4 comments:

  1. well, the lastest news is that it is going to come down by 6 sen...
    when going up, one time 70 sen!! >.<"

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  2. 迷迭香
    When the price hike was announced in June, drivers rush to fill up their tanks before the D-day.
    Now you better wait until price down before you go to petrol kiosk. It may save you RM1 :D

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  3. KS:
    Yes, I am with ya on keeping oil prices high.

    If the society changes, its only correct that we adjust ourselves to it, rather than complain to the gahmen and get no outcome, or myopic short-term solutions.

    People should stop asking "Why". Instead, they should always challenge ourselves with "Why not?"

    I call it the Bus Stop Theory. When the bus comes soon (oil price drop), people take it for granted. When it take ages to come (oil price rise), we just complain non-stop.

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  4. shingo
    Petrol price in Malaysia is certainly not too expensive compared to Singapore.

    ReplyDelete