No daily fuel pricing policy for now, says Johari

KUALA LUMPUR: The Government has no intention of implementing a daily fuel pricing policy at the moment.

Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said this was because careful preparations needed to be done before the daily fuel price mechanism could kick in.

“The oil companies and petrol stations must be prepared. There could be a situation where some petrol stations may choose to close for the day and that would cause inconvenience to others.

“So, we need to look into it carefully,” he said at the Kampong Bharu Development Corporation Hari Raya open house yesterday.

He said it was best to give the people time to adjust to the changes with the weekly fuel pricing policy and ensure that the current ecosystem and structure could accommodate the weekly prices efficiently.

“Maybe in the future we can think about (daily fuel pricing) but at the moment, the Government has no intention to make it such.

“We feel the weekly mechanism is good as we want everyone to benefit from it.

“At the end of the day, the Government does not want to take money from consumers,” said Johari.

He said the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry was looking into formulas for the petrol price mechanism which would benefit both consumers and petrol station owners.

The weekly fuel pricing mechanism came into effect in April this year.

The prices of petrol and diesel had been placed on a managed monthly float system since Dec 1, 2014, following the removal of fuel subsidies.