Putrajaya: The Ministry of Finance denies the allegation of former Prime
Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that the government has imposed a
sales tax of 30 sen on every litre of RON95 petrol since November 2018.
Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng said, the sales tax amounting RM120
million per week collected from RON95 as claimed by Najib is also false.
“Najib’s slanderous statement is similar to his claims that 1MDB will
benefit Malaysia but instead the whole world knows that 1MDB is the
biggest graft scandal that resulted the Federal Government is indebted
more than RM1trillion,”he said in a statement here today.
Guan Eng is responding to Najib’s statement that said, the MOPS price for
RON95 has dropped to AUDS$0.519 per litre at the end of last week
compared to AUD$0.538 for the week before.
Najib said, following the Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM) that had
been used by the Barisan Nasional Government, the price of RON95
currently should be RM1.86 per litre.
“The current price means that the people are giving petrol subsidy of 34
sen to every litre to the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government during the
school holidays and festive seasons,” he said in his facebook account
NajibRazak today.
Najib as the former Minister of Finance also claims that the Minister of
Finance is shy to admit the situation to enable him to “take the subsidy in a
quiet way”(senyap-senyap tibai).
Najib as the Member of Parliament for Pekan also stressed that if the
Ministry of Finance is brave to break its promise to give petrol subsidy to
the people, at least they should also be courageous enough to admit that
they are collecting petrol tax from the people starting early November.
Meanwhile Najib said under BN government they had never imposed
petrol tax and for that the price of RON95 has reached as low as RM1.60
until RM1.70 and diesel at RM1.35 in two to three years before even
though many people have forgotten or pretend to forget about it.
Guan Eng in his reply to Najib’s acusation also said, beginning Jun 7, 2018
the PH government has maintained the price of the retail price of petrol
RON95 and diesel to RM2.20 and RM2.18 per litre even though the global
market price for petroleum product has rose drastically at that time.
“The government has incurred a subsidy payment of RM7.14 billion until
November 2018 with subsidy liabilities for May until November 2018
amounting RM5.82 billion.
“The government will continue to maintain the retail price of petrol
RON95 and diesel at RM2.20 per litre and RM2.18 per litre when the real
market price has escalated higher than the price fixed through subsidy but
only for targeted group” he added.
Guan Eng also mentioned that in case the prices of petrol rise higher than
RM2.20 per litre for RON95 and RM2.18 for diesel, then the government
will implement the petrol RON95 subsidy to the targeted and qualified
group only as announced in 2019 Budget.
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However he said for the unqualified group, the retail price of petrol will be
floated within control to reduce the government’s liabilities in subsidy
payments. –Malaysia World News.
