Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Why Can't Petrol Stations Sell At Lower Prices?



20 comments:

yapster said...

dear YB tony,

very well spoken indeed on this issue. im not sure if lowering down the petrol prices will cause any other issue out there? maybe, all petrol company not doing that well and they can't pay as much tax to government if they are under controlled price?

but i do agree with u, we should make them compete then things will get better for people. do fight on this issue, i will keep u in my prayer.

thanks
yap

CL Yeap said...

Just tell this stupid minister we consumers will not confuse, in fact we will be very happy. It's them who are confused and not fit to govern the country. Just sad to say we are governed by these stupid BN ministers.

Anonymous said...

Watever reason given by the BN Minister are all bullshit.. All of the are not fit to govern, I bet if they were to go for an interview with any firm in Europe or US, they will be rejected..

These goons are only fit to be Jaguh Kampung!! Better ask them to jaga their 'reban ayam' in their Kampung!!

Anonymous said...

Why our PM wants brain dead people to be our Domestic Trade Minister?

clk said...

Taxes or subsidies dictate the pump prices which are all Govt controlled. Selling lower means paying more taxes by the operator.

KY said...

Hi TONY,

It's better if petrol is FREE OF CHARGE!!!

Forget about tax & forget about subsidies....it's the RAKYAT's PRIORITY of which should come first.

I don't understand all the BIG FUSS surrounding this issue when the price of petrol wasn't even debated to be made FREE!!!

Come 'on TONY!!! You can do better. We want petrol to be FREE (not at a lower price). Get it???

Anonymous said...

KY

YOU DONT NEED TO PAY FOR PETROL IF THE PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS GOOD.

Orang minyak

solidleong said...

You have done your part which i appreciated. Anyway they won't give a hoot about this. Nice try anyway.

Anonymous said...

Tony,

How about initiatives to increase energy efficiency and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels? how about reducing our carbon emissions?

Pump prices are current issues, sooner or later we will run out of petroleum - then what? Steps that we put in place now are vital for the long-term.

Anonymous said...

I bet some of these BN Ministers owned DOZEN of gas stations all over the country. The idea of cheaper gas price must have hurt their pocket more than the rakyat.

Anonymous said...

Do you want to know why?

1. All petro station belong to BN Family. If you not belive go and check 80% of them belong to BN family.

2. Petro very good product for BN Family make money.Easy money.

3. If all above are not the issue so what you think? All Malaysian people are STUPID lah so 1Malaysia also STUPID people.

Anonymous said...

Great point Tony! I'd like to ask the PM why this sensible solution to curb inflation is not possible,
In the US, stations here sell at different prices and whenever competition is present, the consumer always wins.


angela ooi

Anonymous said...

One word PETRONAS

ivan said...

I agree with Tony Pua.I know why they won't lower the petrol price because when Petronas's profits drop,then BN will have less money

amal said...

Tony,

Perhaps you fail to understand that the market oil price is more than RM2 at the moment.

wira said...

Dear YB Tony,

I believe the real reason why they don't want to allow competition among petrol stations is that most of them are owned by UMNO linked Bumiputra who may be squeezed out of business if they are allowed to fight each other. The stronger ones want to keep their earnings while the weaklings will complain to UMNO ....

Another facade of 1Malaysia.

Kuang Shan said...

Hi Tony,

Good comments on this. In Australia (when I was studying there a few years ago), each individual petrol station will post up different prices each day. I guess my concern here is that even if companies are allowed to dictate the actual prices to be sold to public (up to the max cap price), they still might not do so because ultimately, it IS a oligopoly (not many players in the market anyway).

Personally i think it works elsewhere because EACH PETROL STATION OWNER is allowed to freely set their prices, which means they are functioning more like an independent business owner, rather than under the employment of the large oil companies. They can set their prices (at the expense of their margins) as they see fit, as the oil companies are not privy to the price to consumers.

What do you think?

Anonymous said...

In a free economy,it is best that government doesn't try to act stupid to be ridiculed unless they have nothing better to do.Most of our ministers are morons when trying to answer question such as gasoline price.

Anonymous said...

I'm not clear how you link your pro-public transport stance with allowing lower petrol prices. This is very much like the government's effort to on the one hand announce Public Transport as a national priority yet allowing discounts for toll rates - however minimal impact they may have.

I would argue for some consistency across your policies. This reeks of populism.

Anonymous said...

this is the first time i come to this website, apparently YB Tony is a whiz-kid in economics.

my God, i would say he is an embarrassment to Oxford. Clearly he does not understand enough the nitty gritty of Automatic Pricing Mechanism and the fuel market in Malaysia!

1) As pointed out by someone - the reason the government has to give a subsidy is because the total product cost per litre (from the crude, to refining cost, to distribution cost etc.) is MORE than the price that oil companies are allowed to charge to customer. Hence the subsidy. Otherwise the government will charge a sales tax on every litre of fuel sold. The fact that this alleged WHIZ KID doesn't even understand this - really demolish his credibility as DAP's economic whiz kid. Not clever at all!

2) His suggestion that companies "are allowed to compete" shows inexperienced in managing big operations. Even if hypothetically the cost is lower than selling price (and therefore oil companies can reduce the price to compete), firstly no companies with any commercial sense will do this (and I do hope Tony Pua will not be appointed as the head of any of these companies for his lack of commercial sense!). The objective of any company is to maximise shareholder's profit, so they will stick to the control price. If the price is higher than the cost, the government will gain through sales tax.

Of course, the only way to allow for competition is to float the fuel price in accordance to crude oil prices.

Then companies are allowed to make commercial decisions - increase when the cost is high, reduce to gain market share when the cost is low.

Government sticks to tax on companies' profit - no sales tax or subsidy as a balancing mechanism.

But of course, at the same time - this is a party that calls for state oil revenue to be distributed by RM6,000 per person, so fat chance they will agree on a market fuel price.

Tony has a lot to learn; as well as all the people who come here and believe religiously everything he says.

He does not know a lot and I hope in the future he is a bit more humble.

In the case of oil price, he definitely does not have a clue!