The former DAP MP said that while the government’s monthly fuel subsidy bill is expected to increase to about RM3.2 billion from the previous RM700 million, this amounted to a fraction of the national oil company’s net profit.

“The government will need to be prepared to spend a larger sum of Petronas’s funds to subsidise the increased oil prices,” he said in a Facebook post.

In another post earlier today, he had speculated that the war on Iran, which led to world crude oil prices surpassing US$100 a barrel, could have caused an increase in Petronas’s profits. “Surely, net profits accruing from sales of crude petroleum and liquefied natural gas could be used to offset the price increase.”

Ramasamy said the recent surge in domestic petrol and diesel prices have burdened consumers, especially those from lower-income households. (Last week, the price of RON97 petrol went up by 70 sen to RM4.55 per litre, unsubsidised RON95 to RM4.37 per litre, and diesel up by 80 sen to RM4.72 per litre in Peninsular Malaysia.

Ramasamy said consumers faced with price increases in other sectors, would not be able to cope under the existing subsidy structure. He urged Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to adopt systematic approaches to reduce the burden on consumers.

Earlier today, Anwar said Malaysia, although an oil-producing nation, remained a net oil importer with nearly 50% of the country’s supply of oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz. “To protect Malaysians, government subsidies have gone up from RM700 million (a month) to RM3.2 billion,” he said.

Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz following the US-Israel strikes earlier this month, leading to crude oil surging to around US$100 per barrel.