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Fuel and Electricity Hike, Money needed for final battle



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Jun 04 2008
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Why did Abdullah Badawi press the “Self Destruct” button by raising the fuel price by a whopping 40.62 percent or 78 sen per liter? Not satisfied that the self-destruct button might work, he put in the second-layer security with another explosive – raising electricity rates by 18% for homes and 26% for business users. You just got to respect this sleepy head for the guts. Really, I doubt Mahathir has even half the guts to do what Badawi has done.

Just out of curiousity I went to join in the party, the queue, to feel the excitement of filling up the petrol before the midnight bell strikes. It was havoc with motorists squeezed two lanes out of the already two-lane road, so basically it became a three-lane road. I skipped the first and second lane and proceeded to create a “new third lane” (yes! I’m a violent person) thus divided the supposely two-lane to four-lane road *grin*. The fact was I won’t be able to get a drop of petrol if I remained at the original 2-lane queue. And guess what! after I created the third queue everything seems to move more smoothly. It’s because the petrol pump operators realized the serious bottleneck and began to get his ass out from the air-cond counters to help divert the customers plus helping with the payments.

Petrol pump rushThe situation got worse when the station has to dedicate one pump to motorcyclists alone of which the flow appeared to be never-ending. And when I took some photos, the motorists raised his voice at me “Hey! Are you a reporter? Go and tell Badawi that he sucks big time! And if he still can remains in office after next (13th) general election, I’ll cut my d**k”. So you see Badawi does not have any intention to stay and try his luck again in another 4-5 years. In fact he knew he is history and the chances of him to be able to sleep on the comfort of Seri Perdana’s bed come next election is almost zero. So what would you do if you’re in his situation?

It’s time to rip off as much as you can. Damn the popularity because it doesn’t works in Malaysia. Even if you can get only 49% of the votes, you’ve basically secured the throne. Who says the government is subsidizing you, your family members and your dog’s petrol expenses? Malaysia is a net exporter of crude oil. This means the country is selling more oils than buying it for domestic consumption. In this transation it makes money (via Petronas) so it’s not true that the government is subsidizing the people, mind you. It just that the difference (sell minus buy) is not sufficient for the government to do whatever that it wanted to do. You might argue that I’m twisting the fact but the arithmetic is correct.

Rebates insufficient for poorThus in the name of subsidy the government is basically telling you now that the profit made by the government from the RM1.92 a liter is not sufficient and it needs to increase it to RM2.70 a liter and you have less than 6-hours to rush your ass to the nearest petrol station if you wish to save some money. Of course a small group of people will be given the sweeteners in the form of RM625 annual cash rebate if you’re driving a 2,000cc vehicle which translates to about RM52 a month. That means you’re basically given an end-of-the-year voucher to claim about 67 liters of petrol a month.

The newly launched Proton Saga drinks 40 liter for a full tank. Assuming each full tank can last you 1-week, you’re paying RM307.20 per month based on the old rate of RM1.92 a liter but a whopping RM432 a month based on new rate of RM2.70 a liter. That’s a difference of RM124.80 a month dude. Unless you can further cut down on the usage, the RM625 annual cash rebate is barely enough and definitely a lose-lose proposition for you. But why would the government cares? The best part is the government will review the fuel price on monthly basis, so there could be more surprises in the closet.

Badawi announced fuel and electricity hikeAnother reason for adopting such an unpopular decision was to accumulate as much as possible for the final battle – against the cash-rich Team-B consists of Najib Tun Razak (President); Muhyiddin Yassin (Deputy President); Ali Rustam, Shafiee Afdal and Rahim Thambi Chik (the three Vice-Presidents); and Mukhriz Mahathir (Youth Leader). It could be that the government is ready for a snap election as well so it needs lots of money. Don’t you feel disgusted when Badawi was happily announcing the fuel hike as if it was not a big deal after all? He even has the cheek to say he hopes that the people of Malaysia will not take to the streets to vent their anger over the fuel price hike because it is still the lowest in Asia despite the latest raise.

Badawi squeeze 13 billionThe reality is Abdullah Badawi can do a lot with the RM13.7 billion saved from the latest fuel hike and that’s what matter to him most, not the peoples’ suffering. Back in Jan 2007, I wrote that the country could be bleeding and the coffer was out of money. I hate to think so but it appeared the nation’s total treasure is in dire situation. Why I’ve a bad feeling that the Central Bank is going to raise the interest rate in the name of fighting inflation? And it seems my prediction of RM2.82 a liter back in Oct 2007 almost hit the jackpot. Not sure if I should bet on 270 and 192 for the 3D or 192270 and 270192 for the 6D.

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Comments

We sell crude at historical prices but buy back refined petrol at current prices; how to make enough money to play around?

hello orang minyak …

if we only know how to sell crude at future market at much lower price (than market price) but did not hedge it at the same market (to buy) to make profit, then i suppose we deserve to be a loser …

note that the oil we sold are of high quality while it was lower for our consumption …

cheers …

Mahathir said,our 250,000 barrels of export should earn us 250,000 x 100 x 365 x 3 = RM27,375,000,000 (twenty seven billion Ringgit).But Petronas made a profit of well over RM70 billion, all of which belong to the Government.

But the gomen says they rugi alot by giving subsidies. Ummm…..me wonder how much is the gomen really subsidizing?

cheers.

if thats the case, why cant we sell refined petroleum instead? didn’t we have refineries in terangganu and sarawak?
Why must we buy the refined petroleum from others?

I also do believe the present leadership don’t give a s*** to the common people but are instead trying to win the internal party fights. All of them can go to Jahannam (Hell)!!.

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