Poll: Many hope fuel-price mechanism to continue favouring consumers
KUCHING: The longawaited drop in fuel retail prices, which took effect yesterday until Jan 11 should provide some financial relief to consumers.
Still, it is ironic that prices of goods would never go down whenever fuel prices drop; unlike when fuel prices go up, the prices of goods would go up as well.
In this respect, economic analyst Assoc Prof Madeline Berma believed that there should be a system to monitor traders and prevent them from taking advantage of the fuel price hikes.
“This is worrying because whenever fuel prices go up, prices of goods also increase – this adds to the financial burden of the consumers,” she said when asked about this yesterday.
Nevertheless, Madeline welcomed the government’s move of having retail prices of petroleum re-coordinated weekly according to the managed float system under the Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM), in line with the current downward trend in oil prices in world markets.
Under this system, retail prices are set to be announced every Friday, and would be in effect from the following day until the next Friday.
The introduction of this system this year resulted in the reduction in retail prices for RON95 and RON97 petrol, as well as diesel. RON95 is now being sold at RM1.93 (17 sen lower) per litre, RON97 at RM2.23 (27 sen lower) per litre, and diesel at RM2.04 (14 sen lower) per litre, up until this Jan 11.
Kota Samarahan Municipal Council chairman Dato Peter Minos also regarded the reduced fuel prices as good news for the consumers.
“This provides some relief from the burden of rising cost of living especially for those from the low-income group, who are happy for any step taken to reduce prices,” he said.
Meanwhile, a lecturer Vitcsy Michael Niob, 39, expressed her hope for the government to continue maintaining low fuel prices for the benefit of the consumers.
She described the latest fuel prices as among the lowest ever announced – one that puts the smile back to many people’s faces.
“Even if the global oil prices were to go up again, I hope the government would be able to come up with a ceiling price that would be reasonable for the people.
“What we worry is that traders would hike prices whenever fuel prices increase, but would never reduce prices (of goods) whenever fuel prices go down. I hope something could be done about this,” she said.