‘Tell public earlier about fuel price hikes’

KUCHING: The Consumers Voice Association for Sarawak (Covas) has called on the government to establish a proper method to inform the public in advance on fuel price hikes.

Covas president Michael Tiong said this would enable the public to be better prepared for such increases.

“Fuel price hike, which will eventuate any time, is common in any country. But the method or the right channel of informing the public must be established. The advance notice should be given within the reasonable timeframe so that people will be prepared for it,” he said yesterday.

“The ones who will suffer the most are the consumers where they will be the last person to receive all the transferred costs whenever purchases are done.

“We hope the government would come up with the most effective channel to inform people in advance of the scheduled hikes in future and also a plan to reduce prices.”

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism on its official Facebook page denied issuing a fuel price hike notice effective today.

A fake notice to that effect, purporting to be from the ministry, had gone viral on social media yesterday.

The Petrol Dealers Association of Malaysia ( PDAM) also shot down the message, which claimed a 15 sen per litre increase for RON 95, five sen increase for RON 97 and 20 sen for diesel this month, as ‘unsubstantiated’.

As at last month, RON95 petrol was priced at RM2.10 per litre, RON97 at RM2.40 per litre and diesel at RM2.05 per litre.

The ministry has set fuel prices on a managed float system since Dec 1, 2014 following the removal of fuel subsidies.