By Sin Chew Daily
Just as Malaysians are waiting for the government to unveil the formula of calculating the monthly fuel prices, it suddenly decides to change the rules of the game.
Beginning next month, ceiling prices will be announced weekly, and petrol dealers are permitted to set their own retail prices not exceeding the government’s ceiling prices.
New government policies are going to have some impact on the lives of the public, especially one that entails fuel prices. The question now is whether this will eventually benefit the consumers.
Unfortunately, the government has not provided a clearer picture of the new measure, and what we see is one that lacks some key information.
As a result, people begin to imagine and speculate as they try to analyse the boon and bane of the new policy. Petrol dealers, nevertheless, have been fast in registering their frustration.
They generally believe that this is going to spark a new round of price-slashing war that will take a toll on their profits and could even cause some of them to wind up in the worst case scenario.
For the dealers, profitability has been the biggest factor to drive their businesses, but for consumers, we are more concerned whether petrol prices will drop and ease the burden of the rakyat.
Dealers compete against one another by adopting various strategies and means, including lowering retail prices to lure customers. The stiff competition among airline companies and telcos, for example, has remarkably benefited consumers.
Open competition among petrol dealers should be a boon to the consumers by this reasoning. Under normal circumstances, competition has its positive effects and consumers will be able to enjoy cheaper fuel through it.
While businesses are concerned about competition, consumers would nevertheless welcome it with open arms. But one thing we need to take note here is that the government must play a proactive role in ensuring healthy competition and curtailing attempts by a handful of large companies to monopolise the market, jeopardising consumer interests in the long run.
Formula for setting fuel price
On the surface, the government’s new ceiling price policy should benefit the consuming public, the key lies with how the government is going to set the weekly ceiling prices, and whether they will be computed based on the existing formula.
If the government adopts a new formula and not the existing one in order to come up with higher ceiling prices, then this whole thing may not benefit the people. To really benefit the public, the formula must be reasonable and logical.
This brings us back to the earlier question: the government must publish the existing formula of calculating retail fuel prices and how the weekly ceiling prices will be calculated in future. This is to ensure that the rakyat will not suffer because of a different pricing mechanism.
We are not trying to be skeptical or distrusting of the government, but at least this kind of cautious and inquisitive attitude is what each of us needs to have in the face of an overly powerful government machinery.
Sin Chew Daily is a local vernacular publication
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