The Yat (One) And Only Journey…

Alternative Way To Counter Petrol Price Hike

Well, it’s not any big news anymore that he is pumping this much of full tank petrol, she is pumping that much of full tank petrol..

Everyone is sick with the new petrol price already..RM2.70 per liter is like hell for low and middle-income earner..

Even with the rebate system, there is loads of loopholes where people would abuse this privilege..

The following article is an idea from my dad, which he also sent the article to few major newspapers in the country..

So far, only The Sun has published it and you can check it HERE..

Otherwise, I’ve copy-paste everything and put it in here with red-highlights and further elaborate the points stated out by my dad..

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The most effective way to overcome the problem of the fuel price rise and inflation is for Petronas to declare dividends to all Malaysians above the age of 21, since Petronas, as a national corporation, belongs to all Malaysians.

Assuming that 17 million Malaysians (or 63% of our 27 million population) falls under this category, it would cost Petronas RM17 billion if it declares a dividend of RM1,000.

The merits of paying dividend as against subsidy are:

• 1. The present system of subsidising RM625 to car-owners may be subject to abuse. It may now be worthwhile to maintain the registration of a car that is not roadworthy just to enjoy the benefit of the subsidy.

Besides, there will definitely be more ingenuous ways to cheat.

Take for example, a person who an old car registered under his/her name..The car is old enough to become your father and no one is driving it..

But at the same time, one can use that car to claim the rebated provided by the Government..Isn’t it unfair?

• 2. News reports said that it is estimated that the government would be subsiding RM18 billion this year (RM8bil from January to May and RM10bil from June to December).

Therefore, it’s better for Petronas to pay a dividend than to provide the subsidy.

With subsidy the petrol price is already ceiling high..Then it’s better not to give any petrol subsidy but to give out dividend that will benefit the people in many ways..

• 3. The fuel price rise affects not only car-owners. The chain reaction has caused undue hardship to everyone.

Therefore, it is only fair that non car-owners, especially the poor who cannot even afford to buy a motorcycle, are assisted on the same quantum.

The rebate system only pays to car-owners of below 2,000cc..What about the other people who got affected by the chain-reaction?

Due to increment in petrol price, logistics companies and any other courier service will definitely increase their price as well..

And from there, food operators will have to increase the prices of their food as well..This will only cause hardship to the people who didn’t benefited from the rebate system..

• 4. If Petronas were to pay RM1,000 to all Malaysians, each family on the average would receive an additional RM3,000 disposable income.

With RM17bil injected into the financial system, the purchasing power would be strengthened; thus generating more business and opportunities.

On average, say a family have both parents, a child of at least 21-years old (considering that he has license to drive around), and maybe a child or 2 that are studying in primary or secondary school..

If we go by the dividend payout system, by default a family will get to have RM3,000..And later in the coming years after the children have grown up, they’ll get to have RM5,000 altogether..

Don’t you think RM5,000 IS ALOT for some families that are living in poverty? Consider this, some families are to poor to own a car..

But at the same time, they are affected by the chain-reaction caused by the petrol price hike..Do you still think that so-called NEP still applies in this matter? I don’t think so..

• 5. The unrealistic price of oil is manipulated by speculators. In due course when these future contracts are due for delivery, these manipulators would surely bring down the price to below US$100 per barrel; otherwise they would be losing their pants

We should not subject our economy to the havoc created by these manipulators. By subscribing to the dividend system, Petronas could pay a higher dividend when the oil price is high and a lower dividend when it is down. It is so flexible.

Why we would say it’s manipulated by speculators..Yes, The States is under recession or whatsoever now but, they are not the only oil producing country..

Think Middle-Eastern countries..They didn’t even mention that there’s insufficient of oil at this very moment..

Why the oil price has increased drastically? These speculators are offering future contracts, where you buy the materials for a certain time period, say you are buying it from them for 10 years of supply..

Heard of Enron? It’s almost the same case as the Enron Scandal..

At this rate when the price of barrel is increasing like shit, these speculators aren’t earning anything from it and yet, they are losing their money..

So by prediction, the petrol price would drop when it reaches somewhere near $200 per barrel..

But it’s still surprising that OPEC isn’t doing anything when the price is manipulated by the so-called big player..

• 6. If subsidies were to be channeled through a chain of commands in the form of government departments, loopholes and hiccups are bound to develop and the effectiveness of the purpose would be negative.

For this, I’ve claimed my rebate from the post office..It’s really easy and fast..

The queue aside (just 4 people in front of me), the whole process between the counter operator and I took about 3-minutes only..

All I needed to do was to fill in the form while I’m in the queue..Just put in all the details of your fullname, IC number, and your vehicles registration number..

Hand it over to the counter, they go online to check your details to match it with the details you have provided..

Voila! The operator open the drawer and start to count the exact amount of money to give to you, CASH!! See, it’s that easy..

But then again, if it’s so easy, you can do the same thing in every different post office in KL area..

For one post office you’ll get RM625..For 10 post offices, you’ll get RM6,250..

Then you go to another area, say PJ..You go to another 10 post offices and you’ll get another RM6,250..

That sum up you’ll get RM12,500 in just a day or two..Yes you might get caught for doing so but that is only IF the authorities decided to do so..

See how many bus drivers and and traveling bus agencies got off the hook and non-stop killing people in accidents..

I might do it to get myself a DSLR! LOL!!

• 7. Malaysia does not have to be a welfare state, but the yearly dividend from Petronas would ensure that nobody goes hungry.

Since Malaysia is subsidizing some goods and raw materials but the people didn’t really seemed to benefit from it, why not just give out the dividend..

Say, you demolish the subsidy system, all the goods put in its real market price..Use the money in the subsidies as dividend to the people..

That might be even better..For the initial plan of giving RM1,000 per person of 21-years old above, one might even have the chance to get around RM1,500..

This would totally benefit those big families of the poor..Don’t you know that there are a lot of parents with almost 10 children and yet they are living in poverty?

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The petrol price hike have been creating hardship to everyone else..The rich is just slightly affected from it..

While the poor gets poorer..And I bet the crime rate would increase in the next few months..

And it’s not any propaganda or whatsoever of the Opposition..It’s shown and everyone else IS joining it..

*Pictures taken from Malaysiakini*

This happened on 13th of June, after the Friday prayers..It’s touted as the biggest demonstration and a peaceful one..

They walked off their initial path to KLCC and headed to the cross junction of Jalan Dang Wangi and Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman..

They dispersed peaceful without any attack from the FRUs of tear gas and water cannons..

See, people just want to vent out their anger and would walk off just like, without causing any trouble to the FRUs..

Now you know why the some past demos ended up in bad shape? It’s all because of FRUs..

Not long after that, our so-called PM, Pak Lah announced that there will be no petrol price hike anymore in 2008, at least..

Well, as we all knew, the moment he announces that certain IS not going to happen, THAT particular issue IS going to happen..

What’s your say?

Posted under: Issues, Thoughts