Wall Street tumbled more than 200 points to its lowest close since mid-March thanks to surging oil prices which was traded as high as $138.30 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The culprit – U.S. Energy Department data Wednesday showed that gasoline supplies grew last week but that crude oil inventories fell more than analysts expected – a sign that U.S. energy demand is still growing despite more than $4 a gallon gasoline. On the other hand Fed confirmed the economy remains “generally weak”.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he expects oil prices to keep climbing and predicts they could reach $200 a barrel. Sure, he blamed it on the falling U.S. dollar, U.S. continuous threat to bombard Iran and U.S. own bad management on economy except himself. As the fifth largest oil supplier to the U.S. Chavez could scream as loud as he likes but maybe he should helps to convince the OPEC members to increase production. In practice they don’t really have to increase the output but merely a statement will surely helps to bring down the oil prices.

It’s hard to hate Chavez although he seemed to have the vocal voice comparable to former premier Mahathir in condemning the West especially U.S. He’s an angel when you talk about fuel price. In fact Venezuela is perhaps one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, countries that you could get your fuel at RM0.16 a liter. Malaysia’s latest hike of 78 sen or 40.6 percent a liter has pushed up the country onto the world map as perhaps the most expensive amongst the oil producing countries.

Very few rejoice after the government announced that there will be no further increase to the price of fuel in the country this year even if the global price of oil reaches US$200 (RM654) per barrel. Perhaps the PM was worried more and more people are engaging in unhealthy activities in order to change their lifestyles. Cool, license for the global oil prices to shoot above $200 a barrel but then there’s another reason why people didn’t brouhaha now the same way when it was raised. Obviously people are not confident with their flip-flop PM Abdullah Badawi who might just increase the fuel price to RM4.00 anytime armed with the silliest reason you could ever think of. Hence might as well take the announcement with a pinch of salt.
Petronas suggested that the subsidy should be removed completely. I agreed and I’m sure all the people would stop grumbling provided the government enforces the following:

• Since the government likes to compare with Singapore, the government should just increase all our salaries by 3.5 times since that’s how much Singapore’s GDP per capita is compared to Malaysia. I believe you would be very happy to receive monthly salary of RM7,000 from current RM2,000 and I doubt you would demonstrate even if the fuel price increases to RM4.00 a liter.
• Revamp the income tax structure to imitate Singapore’s
• Abolish all the tolls
• Abolish the road tax
• Abolish renewal of driving license
• Abolish import duties on all non Malaysian made car

Last but not least, improve the damn public transportation before recites the same old expired excuses again. What happened to the billions of dollars saved from the previous 30 sen a liter hike in 2006? Why I’ve a bad feeling that somhow Scomi Coach Sdn Bhd would benefits the most from the so-called transportation system improvement?

Other Articles That May Interest You …

• Still steamy hot with fuel hike? Why not kick Badawi’s arse?
• Windfall Tax – why Discriminate and Petronas not in?
• Could the country pushed to the brink of Recession?
• Fuel hike from RM1.92 to RM2.70, Char-Kuey-Teow RM7.50?

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June 12th, 2008 by financetwitter

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