Fuel price hike will burden majority: DAP
Published on: Friday, October 03, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Democratic Action Party (DAP) Chairman Jimmy Wong said while the 20 sen per litre increase in fuel prices may not be much, it is a burden to the majority of the people, particularly Sabahans."The impact is serious. The increase of just 10 per cent would deeply affect other items and services. Transportation from here to Matunggong, by Saturday, would increase by RM10, from RM30 to RM40. That's a 33.3 per cent increase."Food prices will increase. And I was told that while RON95 will be exempted from GST next year, no word from the government whether diesel will be exempted too.ADVERTISEMENT "In Sabah, cars running on diesel is a necessity because of the pitiful road conditions. Those in the peninsula can afford to buy petrol cars only because their roads are beautiful. So next year, with the GST, we will be paying extra 20 sen plus six per cent," he said during a press conference here, Thursday.Wong also cautioned that the fuel price may increase yet again before the end of this year as had happened in previous years, until the price of fuel in the country reaches the international market value.ADVERTISEMENT He added that such moves would literally kill-off Sabah's manufacturing industries that rely heavily on diesel. Furthermore, since fuel price increase would drive the prices of goods and services higher, workers would eventually start to demand for higher salaries or allowances.
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"Sabahans are already paying 30 per cent higher for any goods and services. And soon, we will have to pay GST. With the increase of fuel, the prices of goods will shoot up again, as always," he said, adding that Sabah should be exempted from GST altogether.He continued that since the government still could not resolve the price disparity issue between the peninsula and the Bornean states, it is better for the government to learn from companies such as fast food companies on how they managed to offer their products at the same price nationwide.National products, he said, such as Proton and Perodua should be able to offer their products at the same price instead of forcing Sabahans and Sarawakians to pay extra few thousand ringgit."One price for one nation. Every Malaysian must share the costs together. The basis of this formula is, all Malaysians take the costs of the transportation and the market share of each state, and then set the price of the products accordingly so that everyone pays the same price, everywhere in Malaysia," he explained.He said there is no need to allocate RM300million in transportation subsidies to bridge the price disparity as it had been proven ineffective and impractical.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Meanwhile, Sabah DAP Secretary-General Edwin Bosi said fuel price hike is a serious issue and could sway the people's perception towards the government of the day."Politically speaking, this is good for the opposition as the government-in-waiting. We have foreseen this problem through the mistakes made by the BN government and we could learn from them and not make the same blunders, we can become a better government than them," he said.