The political tsunami perhaps bring good news to us - we might be paying less for petrol soon, but here’s the catch. We will be getting a lower octane petrol instead.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister, Shahrir Samad said a proposal to provide higher subsidies for lower octane petrol to benefit the low and middle-income consumers while lower subsidies for high octane petrol as option to the rich. Currently, petrol stations in Malaysia are selling Octane 92 petrol, which is mainly used by motorcycles, and Octane 97 for other petrol-powered vehicles.

Under this proposal, petrol stations will sell Octane 95 and Octane 99 petrol instead. The government will focus on providing subsidies for Octane 95, while Octane 99 will still be subsidised, but less. The will result in a much lower price for Octane 95 petrol compared to Octane 99. Octane 95 petrol is said to be suitable for all petrol-powered vehicles. Cars such as Mercedes Benz can also be powered by Octane 95 petrol, but will not have a high performance advantage unless Octane 99 is used.

So, it is hoped that this move will reduce our burden due to the higher inflation we are facing today! Come to think of it, why didn’t the BN government implement this earlier? It takes a political tsunami which results in the loss of 2/3 majority in Parliament as well as 5 state governments to their opponents for them to come with this proposal. And, it is currently still a proposal, with no time frame set yet for the implementation! The people would have benefited from this earlier if the government had implemented this proposal 2 years ago when the price of petrol was increased by 30 sen per litre!