KUCHING: Sarawak DAP Youth has appealed to the federal government to exclude Sarawak from the impending RON 95 petrol subsidy adjustment.
This is because the majority of the people in cities and towns as well as in semi-rural localities use RON 95 daily for their vehicles, and are low and medium income individuals who are struggling to survive.
They cannot sustain any additional financial burdens that would come with the fuel’s retail hike, said the wing’s treasurer Wong King Yii (pic).
“Putrajaya must consider the unique situation in Sarawak where the majority of the ordinary rakyat in the middle and low income categories are still using RON 95.
“The income of the average Sarawak people is lower compared to the people in the peninsular Malaysia states,” he said to reporters here today.
He added that residents in West Malaysia have alternative modes of efficient public transport such as the public bus networks, the MRT and LRT services in the Klang Valley and KTM train services in numerous states.
“Sarawak however, do not have these efficient alternatives of public transportation to use.
“We have very poor public transport systems. Even the public buses in cities and towns are in poor shape.
“We do not have any choice but to use our own vehicles and the majority of vehicles in cities and towns and semi rural areas utilise RON 95,” Wong said.
“Any RON 95 petrol price hike will cause immediate additional expenses as well as subsequent escalating increase in prices of goods and services.”
Wong said Putrajaya can maintain the current subsidy amount for Sarawak just as it had maintained diesel subsidy for Sarawak (and Sabah).
“Sarawak is also a top oil and gas producing state in Malaysia,” he added.
“Much of these oil and gas revenues from Sarawak go into the national revenue that benefits the whole country, so this is another reason why Sarawak should be spared any RON 95 price increase,“ he said.
Wong urged the federal ministries to come to Sarawak and carry out comprehensive consultation with the people before implementing the RON 95 subsidy adjustment.
“Come and discuss with us and listen to our plights and understand the realities of the ground situation in Sarawak,“ he urged.
Putrajaya has excluded the east Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah from diesel subsidy adjustment as diesel fuel is used widely by all the heavy-duty vehicles plying the rural interiors of this huge state that is as big as the whole of peninsular Malaysia.
Diesel is also a necessity in rural longhouses for power generator sets to produce electricity as many of the over 6,000 longhouses in Sarawak are still without normal electricity supply.
