Friday, June 6, 2008

One-off increase, why do it twice?

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad was found mentioning his justification for the one-off price increase of fuel.

In justifying the 78 sen per litre increase for petrol, Shahrir said the amount was the second choice.

“It was either 50 sen, 78 sen or RM1. Initially it was RM1, but then we decided that rather than placing it at 50 sen and then increasing it later, we would just stick to a one-off increase.

“Why do something twice when it can be implemented once?” he asked.
-source The Star

I find this a rather hypocritical albeit pretentious statement, seeing that the reason for the import tax on automobiles have to be slowly reduced so as to not impact the citizens (while protecting a certain manufacturer) resale value whilst the fuel prices had to be raised all at once so that they don't have to come up off their comfy fat asses to ammend the implementation again!

Now how would this sudden increase of 78cents fare for the low-mid income earners that are already making ends meet, and being raised right after the price hike of rice!

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