Singaporean cars have been seen gassing up in Malaysia ever since the border was opened at midnight on Mar 31, and former Prime Minister Najib Razak is not happy about it.
He shared a photo that had gone viral of a vehicle with a Singaporean number plate filling up with gas from a pump with a yellow nozzle, which means that the car is getting RON95 petrol.
This particular fuel is subsidised by the Malaysian government. It’s currently priced at RM2.05 per litre, which is roughly around SGD0.66.
On Mar 28, the price of octane-95 gas in Singapore was SGD2.898 per litre.
Therefore, Singaporeans who have availed of RON95 petrol in Malaysia are saving a fair amount of money.
But, more importantly, foreign-registered vehicles are disallowed from buying this type of fuel in Malaysia. Because of its high subsidy, RON95 fuel has only been designated for Malaysian motorists, as of Aug 1, 2010.
Drivers of Singapore-registered cars may buy RON97 or RON100 fuel, which are priced in Malaysia at RM3.91 and RM4.60 per litre respectively, or SGD1.26 and SGD1.48. These prices are still significantly cheaper than what they’d pay in Singapore.
For example, here are Shell’s published discounted fuel prices per litre for Apr 2: Shell FuelSave 98 is priced at SGD3.335, Shell FuelSave 95 is at SGD2.869 and Shell V-Power is at SGD3.544.
Najib wrote that if a foreigner would buy 40 litres of RON95, the government would lose RM68 (SGD21.90) of the people’s money.
“Petrol RON95 is a controlled material because it is given high subsidies. It is a violation of the Government Supply Control Act if selling RON95 to foreigners.”
He added that the subsidised price for RON95 petrol in Malaysia is the eleventh lowest in the world, less expensive even than in some oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Jordan, and Oman.
Malaysia’s former PM then called upon the government to monitor the situation more closely.
He added as a postscript, “There are also people who want to blame me in the comment section but the truth is that the ban on selling RON95 to foreigners started being implemented when I was PM.”
Najib’s post has since gone viral, with thousands of views, comments and shares.
The New Straits Times reported on Apr 3 (Sunday) that the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry would halt the selling of RON95 petrol to foreigners after the photo of the car with the SG plate had gone viral.
Moreover, Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi launched an investigation and pledged that additional monitoring would be implemented to prevent the further sale of subsidised fuel to foreigners in the future.
“More aggressive enforcement activities will also be implemented with the launch of Ops Pantau 2022 today.
Apart from ensuring an adequate supply of goods sold at reasonable prices, Ops Pantau 2022 was also to ensure high compliance by traders following the full reopening of the economic sector and the country’s border gates starting April 1.
The ministry has also ordered its state agencies at the borders of Singapore and Thailand to intensify monitoring and inspection,” he said in a statement.
Those who are found disobeying the Control of Supplies Act could be fined as much as RM1 million (SGD 321,700), jailed for as long as three years, or both. /TISG
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