Subsidised petrol is the right of Malaysians – Rasol Wahid

SHAH ALAM - Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) deputy minister Datuk Rasol bin Wahid urges petrol station owners and operators to be more vigilant when seeing foreigners pull up in their stations for Malaysian’s subsidised petrol.

“If we (KPDNHEP) receive such reports, we will take action so we hope petrol station operators are more responsible on issues like these because subsidized petrol is the right of Malaysians,” he said after launching the fifth Buy Malaysia Campaign held at Lotus’s Shah Alam on Thursday.

However, he also said that the ministry was not too much in favour of strictly taking action like fining these people because, in light of the current economic situation, it was financially burdening to pay the huge amounts of summons.

Rasol said non-Malaysians who were caught filling their car with subsidised petrol or diesel could be subjected to a fine of one million ringgit or three years imprisonment, while retail fuel owners could be fined two million ringgit with no imprisonment.

“That is why petrol station operators need to be more vigilant so these cases can be avoided,” he said.

Rasol informed that as of now, no individuals had been fined as KPDNHEP will issue a warning first.

“It’s not our style to straight away reprimand people, we will try to mitigate,” he said.

Sometime in April this year, a picture of two Singaporean registered cars was photographed fuelling their car in a Petronas petrol station in Johor Bahru, which sparked the anger of Malaysian netizens.

Previously, Malaysia had banned the sales of RON95 gasoline to cars that were not locally registered as the subsidised petrol was meant for Malaysians.

At present, RON95 petrol is much more costly in Singapore than in Malaysia, explaining why some Singaporeans were willing to cross borders for cheaper petrol.