Petrol stations located in border states will be barred from selling petrol and diesel to foreign-registered cars starting Friday (May 30). [Thestar]
Update – the plan has been postphoned. The northern border will start the ban on June 2 while southern border on June 9.
Update June 5 – the ban has been lifted following the new petrol scheme.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Samad said the move is aimed at plugging loopholes in the current subsidy system; but the move is temporary until the ministry could come up with better management of the subsidy system.
The ban will involve between 200 and 300 petrol stations, and extends up to 50 kilometres from the borders in Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, Perak and Johor. Currently, petrol stations are not allowed to sell more then 20 litres of petrol to foreign vehicles.
A Singaporean friend was telling me that Malaysia is coming out with this rule to revenge the lost of Batu Puteh. It was just a joke, but it makes me wonder if there are any Singaporeans who actually thought about that and took it seriously.
The decision is set to raise some controversies. While it might help curbing the issue directly, it would lead to other matters like tourism and foreign relations. It’s easy to count the amount of subsidy saved from the new rule, but the intangible losses might be larger than what we would gain.
Actually, the logical way to coup with the issue is to reduce our petrol subsidy and increase our fuel price. The subsidies money could be better spent to improve our infrastructures and public transports, which in long term is the only way to reduce the mass consumption of petrol in our country.
The problem is whether the extra money saved from reducing the subsidy would be well spent and not wasted… we have seen too much mismanagement of public funds over the years that we have generally lost faith with our government obviously.
The snowball effect on other consumer goods will also be a concern, but it could be controlled with proper monitoring and management.
Reducing the subsidy is the only way to go… Malaysians have been pampered all these years; it’s time to have some reality check. Besides, the rich people are the ones that benefited most from the fuel subsidies anyway… it is not helping as much for the poor.