The Star

Wednesday November 19, 2008

Improve public transport to benefit all, urges Fomca

PETALING JAYA: The Government has been urged not to rest on its laurels and not to try to be popular by merely lowering pump prices of petrol and diesel.

Fomca secretary-general Muhd Sha’ani Abdullah said the Government would be missing the point if fuel prices were reduced without developing and improving public transport at the same time.

“The new petrol and diesel prices would only affect consumers at the petrol pumps. The industry and manufacturing sectors won’t receive the reductions.

“If freight and transport rates are not down, how can we expect other consumer products to go down?” Sha’ani said yesterday.

He added that the lower prices would only benefit private vehicle owners and leave public transport users in the lurch when more cars take to the roads following the slashed prices.

“The Government must continue to channel funds to other sectors, such as having subsidised fares for public transport to spread the benefit to more people,” Sha’ani said.

He also said the recent price reductions by hypermarkets were normal sale reductions and had less to do with the fuel price cuts.

Sha’ani agreed with Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who said that consumers should continue to be prudent with their spending on petrol and energy usage.

“Consumers have to look beyond the 15-sen saving and spend wisely,” he said.

Petroleum dealers also continued to incur losses with the latest fuel price reduction, said Malaysian Petroleum Dealers Association acting president Abdul Wahid Bidin.

“We hope this reduction will be the last. Otherwise, we won’t be able to plan ahead and doing business will be very difficult,” he said.

On Tuesday, RON97 petrol dropped to RM2 per litre, RON92 to RM1.90 and diesel to RM1.90.

According to Abdul Wahid, the association had received reports that several petrol kiosks in Sungai Besi, Titiwangsa, Subang Jaya and Nilai have closed after suffering losses from the frequent price reductions.