Petrol Price Hike

Quoting this from Chia Yee who sent her thought out in a mailing list.

I personally fully agree that while it feels bad, each time we see the price at petrol station sky rockets, or worse still, almost all restaurants have increased their price, but I think we need to understand and appreciate the situation. We have spent way too much subsidize our petrol. It shouldn't be subsidized a lot more.

And for this, there would be a rebate of RM620 per year for those with cars below 1999 cc. It effectively means there will be no road tax for those cars below 1999 cc.

Below are Chia Yee's thoughts.
-----

Why die when our petrol although raised by 40% but still is among the lowest in the world? Even Russia, the 2nd largest oil producer in the world has higher prices at the pump than us.

Food prices has increased as much as 60% since 2007 and that is a "rise" that will/has caused actual death. Whereas, higher petrol prices might only mean a change to our lifestyle and driving habits, e.g. car pool.

Food inflation is more deadly, but we seem to accept it better whereas every time petrol subsidy is reduced (though still making ours among the lowest in the world), we are very indignant hehe. We might be an oil producing country but how much more oil Msia still has? -_- If prices remain as cheap as it is, we'll be consuming oil faster and leave our kids to suffer, why not slow ourselves down and share the burden with our next generation?

Looking at the table below, it might not be a coincident that those countries with good public transports also pay the highest for petrol.

UK & the Netherlands are oil producers but they tax petrol instead of subsidizing it.

Cheap oil is an addiction human beings should kick.

We shouldn't protest against lowering subsidies. Instead we should focus all our energy to ensure our government overhaul our public transport.

We want to be like Japan where fuel price is US$1.94/L (RM6.20/L) but with awesome public transport instead of be like Nigeria whr petrol is US$0.10/L (RM0.32/L) or Iran US$0.11/L (US$0.35/L).

Plus, now that the subsidy cushion is gone albeit not entirely, consumers will start to feel the pinch, thus driving down demand. Hundred dollar barrel oil would have to go back down in tandem with lower demand.

I'm only expressing my observations and my rationale might be faulty, but what would you guys have done if the mandate is on your hands instead? Malaysians are not really feeling the pain of higher food prices felt around the region because our government is controlling the prices (read: subsidies again). I think it is better for the poor that government cut fuel subsidies and channel it into food subsidies, no?

One more note, a great many civilizations have collapsed from abuse of environmental resources, e.g. Mayan from unfettered deforestation. If we don't reign in our hydrocarbon (which includes coal) addiction, global warming or some other phenomena might hand us a fate similar to the dinosaurs. No?

High oil price is a complicated phenomena and no one really seems to understand why it's at it's current price, not even the experts. But one thing though, we should also vent our anger at hedge funds & speculators making killings over high oil prices, they even more than oil companies look forward to US$200/bbl oil.

USD/LitreRM/Litre
Netherlands 2.57 8.22
UK 2.26 7.23
Hong Kong 2.00 6.39
Singapore 1.60 5.12
Australia 1.48 4.74
Philippines 1.22 3.90
Thailand 1.18 3.78
Russia 1.00 3.20
Malaysia 0.84 2.70
Indonesia 0.65 2.08

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline_usage_and_pricing
-----
Click here to read more of Chen Chow's posts

Would encourage any of my blog readers to share with me any event that you come across. As long as the event/activity/initiative is education/charity/youth oriented and is not-for-profit, I would be more than happy to post it to share!

Singapore's Inflation

With the feeling that everything has increased price over the recent past and it has been hitting various economies, especially in Asia.

Singapore, for one, has its Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased to 4.2% in November 2007, which is its highest level for the past 25 years.

Food price grew 5.2% over last year in November. Transport and communication grew 5.6%. Housing grew 2.9% and recreation grew 4.1%.

For full article, go to Bloomberg

The increase above hasn't even included the huge increase for the taxi fair since last week.

Nowadays, we see lots of cabs waiting for passengers, instead of the other way around. A lot of cab drivers have been complaining about the challenges to get customers, as customers now would try to avoid taking cab unless necessary.

Was passing by Orchard MRT at midnight on Christmas eve, and it was a surprise that not many people were at the MRT station. Does this signal the tightening of people's spending? Would this problem spiral widely?

Singapore Cab Rate goes up!

ComfortDelGro, one of the main cab companies in Singapore would be increasing its cab rate from 17th December 2007. Yes, it would hit me a lot, since I would be taking cab a lot!

The starting price would go up from S$2.50 to S$2.80 (that's a 12% increase)

For the follow on charges, currently it is S$0.10 per 210 meters till 10km, and then S$0.10 per 175 meters. In the new pricing, it would be S$0.20 per 385 meters till 10km and then S$0.20 per 330 meters. This would be also 7-8% increase.

For picking up from the CBD during peak hours, it increased from S$1 to S$3.

For peak hours charges, instead of the usual S$2, it would be 35% of the metered fare.

For midnight rate, it would become a flat 50% increase from midnight onwards to 6am, which is also another increase from previously. Currently, I think it is 10% surcharge from 11:30pm, 25% surcharge or something like that by 11:45pm, and then 40% surcharge by midnight and 50% surcharge by 12:30am or so.

Booking rate for peak hours drop S$0.50 to S$3.50.

So, lets see how much it is going to impact me, if I am going to take cab from Banyan Condo to Raffles City Tower.

Currently, it is around S$13 (including S$2 for ERP and S$2 for Peak Hours Surcharge).

So, guess the new rate would be S$10 (about 10% increase from previously S$9), plus S$3.50 for 35% peak hours surcharge and S$2 for ERP. This means about S$15.50 now, instead of S$13 or so. A 20% increase.

Yes. Inflation does happen across causeway as well.

US Visa Price goes up!

Inflation has been happening everywhere, and the latest spate.

US Visa for tourist, business and students visa has been increased from USD100 to USD131, to accommodate for the increased processing costs.

For immigrant visa, the price has increased by 6% from USD335 to USD355 as well.

All these increase would take effect from 1st January 2008.