Malaysia-litic - Fuel Hike, oked, Car import duty, how?

Well, I guess the subject of "FUEL" has become the most talk-able subject, and mostly negatively because the recently hike was really causing hardship to many people. Well, to be honest & frank (in macro level sense), it is becoming too costly and not efficient if the government is to continue to subsidise fuel. BUT, our case is different. All the problems that we are facing today are due to corruption, mis-management of funds, wastage and Cronyism among certain protected and privilege groups in Malaysia. Subsidy will definitely create price arbitrage (price difference between non subsidise and subsidised goods) and these cronies and corruptists will take advantage of the situation by using corrupt practise, gangsterism and collusion to reap millions and millions out of it in the expense of the large number of normal citizens. So who to blame? Government gives subsidy to keep the cost stable and as affordable as possible but on the other hand, Government also creates a big HOLE somewhere for the protected and privilege groups to take advantage by relaxing on enforcements.

So it is RIGHT for Government to come back to us NOW and tell us, it is becoming burden to them to continue to subsidise the FUEL, after all those protected and privilege groups stole from us and became multi millionaires and even billionaires (in RM)

What have the Government done all these while? They should be able to predict what would happen.

How about the CAR IMPORT DUTY ? Yes, we are paying FUEL at about the market price just like the American, but OUR CARS are much more expensive after the 150% to 300% import duties. I am not sure if CAR IMPORT DUTY is really a duty that government collected duly from potential car buyers or it is somehow related to AP (Approval Permits) payment that CERTAIN protected and privilege groups collect. Why WHY Government is giving AP to certain people ?? Why not collect the DUTY efficiently and add the duty into the NATIONAL COFFER?

These are all the questions that we need explanations and I hope certain MPs can help to query about these in the Parliament. I guess only Pakatan MPs can bring up this matter as all the other Barisan MPs won't dare to raise any voice about this in the Parliament.

The following was a blog writing from an unknown person by the name of "A concern citizen" from Malaysia-Today. Its all about the above topic matter.

An estimated of RM 162 billions had been collected over the past 22 years. Actual figures could be much higher..

By A concern citizen

Recent fuel hike had sparked anger across the country asking Petronas account to be made available for public scrutiny to justify why the government cannot continue to subsidy the fuel. May be all these while, Petronas may not be footing 100% of the fuel bill, is the car owners had paid in advance for fuel subsidy in form of import and excise duties for both local and foreign mad vehicles, as suggested by one article published in the Star recently, and republished by Malaysia Today.

Following up on this topic, I had done a little research myself, and may be others had already done it but did not get highlighted in a wider angle. I had visited the website of Malaysia Automotive Association to get the statistic of total vehicle sale from 1986 till 2007, to get a broad idea of estimated excise and import duties might have been collected by the government since the inception of Proton, as the import duties were imposed for the excuse of protecting our new start up that suppose to make our nation pride in years to come. Well, Proton is not an issue for our discussion here, so we will not talk about it's success or failure and the failure cost to the rakyat. Let's us guestimate how much we had contributed to the government coffers since 1986.

Total vehicle sales since 1986 amounted to 6,264,910 units, both passengers and commercial vehicles included. (Source: http://www.maa.org.my/info_summary.htm). Assuming the ratio of 60% of total vehicles being locally produced, and rest of them are being imported. Also assuming average duty collected from local car is RM 10K each, and RM 50K for imported vehicles. Please note that I had made broad assumption, as the actual figure was never reported by the government in their annual budget and accounts.

An estimated of RM 162 billions had been collected over the past 22 years. Actual figures could be much higher as import tax was relatively high in the 90s before we signed the ASEAN free trade agreement. Where had the money gone? How much fuel subsidy had been given by the government on fuel after being offset by the car duties?

Such amount can be used to build a comprehensive rail network comparable to Japan and Europe, where almost all major cities are connected by rails. An efficient metro networks can also be build in Klang Valley comparable to London, Hong Kong and Singapore.

I hope the MP will continue to ask for actual figures in the Parliament and show to the rakyat that the car duty and Petronas proceed had been used in an accountable way.