Dear Anonymous,
In response to your comment posted in my previous blog, I thank you for your questions pertaining to the hottest topic these days. Below are my personal views on your questions in brief.
With the recent rise in the fuel price, it affects not only the motorists but the whole nation with the chain effect it has brought along. We, the Kuantanese are not spared from this as we are a non-segregated community from the rest of the states.
How it impacts us?
Cost of living will surely rise.
Crude oil is one of the most crucial commodities in many productions these days. A more expensive oil price will unavoidably bring along a higher cost in production or operation for many other things that affect our livelihood.
Hence, with the same amount of income now, we have to spend more to maintain the same living standards as before. In short, we will be poorer if there isn’t adjustment to our spending habits or increase in our take home income. This is the reason government is looking into ways to curb inflation by imposing price control measures on other items that deem essential to us in our daily lives.
Should we support the government on the rise of the fuel price?
In my personal opinion, the decision to float the trading price of petroleum is a wise move though it is regarded as too drastic. A barrel of crude oil is already traded at more than USD130. Should the government hold on to the oil subsidy scheme introduced years back when the crude oil price was at USD60, then the government budget allocation will be lopsided as the global oil price has increased more than 100%. So, it is a question of a richer Malaysia or a richer Malaysian.
Measures have been taken to cushion the impact by the government by introducing other subsidies directly rebating and off setting part of the extra amount we have to pay for petroleum.
In the last fuel price rise, our government projected a RM13.7 billion savings a year to help in softening the impact on price rise of other essential items. Just if the government had insisted on the petroleum subsidies and unable to save this amount, what will be the consequences? The answer is simple…somebody must shoulder the burden! Thus It is inevitable that prices of other commodities will have to be increased drastically to absorb the excess amount government is paying for us in petroleum. The negative impact will then be greater as it affects directly on the prices of our daily necessities. By then even the beggars will be badly impacted.
Alternatively, the government can either cut or sacrifice the spending on other sectors such as education, hospital benefits, infrastructure developments, etc; or by increasing income through taxes, foreign borrowings and other collections in order to maintain the same budget spending. This will then badly affect our future generations.
The move to hike fuel price as accordance to the market rate helps curbing a more serious inflation because the cost can now be evenly distributed across the board although things are slightly more expensive now.
Under this unavoidable circumstances, what should we do.?
Malaysia will have to stay abreast of global economy trend in order to be a financially sustainable country as a whole. In fact I think our government has done a great job in supporting us with the subsidies all these while.
I would suggest that we tighten our belt a bit more than usual and adjust to a more prudent spending habit in order to overcome this problem for the time being until things are back to equilibrium again. In the long run, we must seriously think of ways to increase our earnings. For working group, we must continuously upgrade our skills in discharging our duties. Businessmen and industrialists must be more cost sensitive and continuously explore a higher value added products or services in order to stay competitive.
4 comments:
Betul juga padangan YB. Tapi kalau macam itu, matilah kami orang miskin!
Saya setuju dengan apa yang dikatakan oleh YB Pang. Saya seorang pemandu juga, tetapi say faham kenaikan harga minyak adalah cara yang telah dipertimbangkan dengan betul oleh kerajaan. Negara kita telah lama memberi subsidi petrol sehingga Malaysia telah dikategorikan sebagai negara yang berharga petrol termurah di sekeliling region kita.
Apa yang saya boleh buat sekarang ialah mengurangkan penggunaan kereta jikalau boleh, berjimat bila menguna air, elektrik, makanan dan lain-lain.
Saya telah memberitahu bini saya supaya kurangkan shopping dan beli belah yang tidak payah.
Yb, thank you for the explaination on fuel price hike,i agreed with the facts given, i wish the public can accept the fact,as the price of fuel stand at 138 usd per barrel as on yesterday.Due to this circumstance every household have to plan and save on unnecessary spending. tq YB.
Dear YB,
You have given a very comprehensive argument on the subject matter. I hope more YBs understand the mechanism employed by the government to ease the burden of the rakyat.
On my part, I believe we have not reached rock-bottom on the subject of oil price. As such, the public must be made to understand that the price of crude oil in the world market will keep on increasing day after day. There is a also a prediction of USD 300 per barrel.
If that is so, the Government will have no choice but to increase the price of fuel a little more in the near future.
Thus, our ability to adapt to the increase in the prices of goods and standard of living, will be the key factor to determine our survivor.
We must also understand that the Opposition will use this situation to gain support from the rakyat. We must ensure that the rakyat will not be carried away by the "sweet talking empty promises" of the detractors...
YB, I wish you luck and may god bless you and you family.
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