Lets talk about petrol in Malaysia
Indeed a sensitive issue. Try shouting “oil price increase” and you’ll see a herds of vehicle rushing to the nearest petrol pump.
But come to think of it, oil price is a complicated issue. Why?
Malaysia is an oil exporter
Yeah. As we know, Malaysia is blessed with many export commodities, one of it is Petroleum. We have many oil reserve especially in East coast. Wait. I didn’t think we still have many because Petroleum created from the remains of creatures during Paleolithic/ Dinosaur age. Terengganu and Kelantan have the oil reserve in their sea area especially. Malaysia export the oil and also use it for citizen’s vehicle. Thus, being subsidize.
Malaysia subsidize the oil to the people
Yup. Government subsidize the oil to the people. Despite that, price still fluctuate and the price still deemed expensive. Fresh graduates who can afford a car, might can’t afford to maintain it. Let say every fresh graduates has a basic salary of RM1500. And for basic first hand car ( saga/viva/myvi ) they may pay Rm400-500 every month and then add to their fuel, i assume RM200 per month base on the engine capacity. The total of it already near to half of their salary and then add in home rent if applicable and also paying back their sponsors/loan, imagine how much they left to survive and save. Well no wonder there might be a numbers who didn’t pay back to PTPTN.
Some people now using motorcycle to cut down their daily fuel usage. Some using their vehicle just to get to the nearest public transport, especially PUTRA/LRT/RapidKL or Komuter and Monorail and then changing trains or buses to go through office. But does using public transport solve all the problem?
