Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Fuel Price Hike

The government has allowed a fuel price hike of 30 cents per litre. In the good old days it used to be an increase of a few cents. Not anymore, as it is reported that the government needs the money to improve public transportation and for development projects! I thought maybe it was to offset the billions that was reported wasted on maintaining public buildings.

This increase will trigger increases in many basic necessities. The people who will be hardest hit are the lower income groups who live in the cities. This group also includes the pensioners. I sincerely hope the present government has some concrete plans to control the price of basic necessities. Just look at what is happening inThailand and the Phillipines. We really don't need to reach such a stage to seek fairplay and justice for the citizens.

Please don't compare fuel prices with neighbouring countries without placing all the cards on the table. That will be like comparing an apple to an orange. I heard Brunei citizens don't have to pay taxes! How about comparing that? The good news is that there will be no further hikes for this year!!! If that is not good news I don't know what is!

2 comments:

David BC Tan said...

granted the sudden hike has left everyone in a spot, is it not possible that we have become too addicted to subsidies (in this case, fuel) that we are unable to face up to reality?

Siva said...

The problem is whose reality. If the people are given a clear picture of the fuel crisis which means transparency in how we get money from the petroleum that we produce and how much goes to whom and why we need to remove the subsidy now .... I think most people will be able to swallow the pill. The prices of the Proton cars are kept high and the imported cars even higher to subsidise somebody. When it comes to fuel the rakyat has to face 'reality'!