Monday, January 11, 2010

New petrol subsidy system to factor in engine displacement size?

New details have been released on the new petrol pricing system that’s set to be implemented on the 1st of May this year. Apparently the different pricing systems will be applied based on “engine capacity” and “socio-economic” factors, though there was no specific numbers unveiled on what the thresholds are.

While we have no details yet as of now on what the threshold of an increase petrol price will be but past government measures might give us a hint. When the price of petrol hit the roof back in 2008, the government announced that a RM625 one-time petrol subsidy would be given to cars with engine displacements of up to 2,000cc, trucks with engine displacements of up to 2,500cc and bikes of engine sizes up to 250cc. We might see these numbers used again for the new subsidy system.

Cars with large engines are already being ‘punished’ with exponentially higher road tax charges but now owners of such cars will have to deal with the fuel prices as well.

Make no mistake about it – with the trend of how things are going, the middle class are just going to be squeezed tighter and tighter. We’ve got to deal with pricier petrol, GST, and many others. You had better plan your finances and monthly budgets for the worse this year, as I don’t think we are going to get any indication of what we are going to face until the last minute. The same report unveiled that details would only be announced on the very day of implementation.

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