KUALA LUMPUR: RON 97 and RON 95 petrol will cost one sen less to RM2.22 and RM1.92 a litre respectively while the price of diesel will go up by one sen to RM2.05/litre from today until Jan 18.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng in a statement here yesterday said the fixing of retail prices for petroleum products for the week Jan 12-18 follows the managed float system under the Automatic Pricing Mechanism.
The federal government has given a commitment to set the retail prices of petroleum products on a weekly basis so as to enable consumers to enjoy any price changes fast in line with the decline in petroleum prices in the world market.
“In order to protect consumers from the effects of significant price increases when world oil prices are rising, retail prices of petroleum products will be maintained at not more than RM2.20 per litre for RON 95 petrol and RM2.18 per litre for diesel through subsidies,” Lim said.
According to Lim, the weekly method which lowered the retail price of petroleum products when world oil prices dropped and capped at RM2.20 for RON95 and RM2.18 for diesel when world oil prices go up, was a new initiative of the Pakatan Harapan government to protect the interests of the B40 (lower income) group, which had never been practised by the previous government.
“The oil price thresholds will be cancelled when oil subsidies are targeted mid-year,” he said.
From Jan 5, retail prices for petroleum products are set weekly. The first week (Jan 5-11) saw retail prices for RON 97 petrol lowered to RM2.23 per litre, RON 95 to RM1.93 per litre, while the price of diesel was also reduced to RM2.04 per litre.
For the following weeks, the retail prices would be re-adjusted according to the managed float method under the APM formula. – Bernama
