Petrol: 20 sen hike for RON97

PUTRA JAYA 12 May - Premium-grade petrol RON97 is to increase by 20 sen, or 11 percent, to RM2 per litre from Sept 1.

The price change will come into effect once the RON95 grade petrol becomes available nationwide, said Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

According to Ismail, the lower grade petrol, to be sold at RM1.75 per litre, is available at selected petrol stations from today.

However, both RON95 petrol and Euro 2M grade diesel is expected be fully available in the market by Sept 1.

Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that RON92 would be removed from the market from next month.

"Although the price of RON95 is higher than RON92, which is being sold at RM1.70 per litre, it is of higher quality and in terms of performance, it is far better than RON92," he said after launching RON95 in Putrajaya.

RON95 will be five sen more per litre than RON92.

Ismail said RON95 could be used for all vehicles including imported luxury cars.

"All cars can use RON95 including the high-powered, branded and so on. If before this, cars of these types used RON97, now they can switch to cheaper RON95," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

According to Ismail, the price of RON97 would not be controlled by the government unlike RON95 that would become a fixed-price product.

Same quality, same performance

He said the higher RON97 price in the market should be too much of a concern because RON95 offers about the same quality and performance as the higher grade petrol.

"The relevant government agencies support the sale of RON95," he said and added that the government would continue providing subsidy on the sale of petrol at three sen per litre.

petrol ron 97 fuel oil price increase 120509However, according to some media reports, Proton cars launched before 1993 may not be able to use RON95.

Last August, the government drastically hike pump prices by over 40 percent to RM2.70 per litre as global oil prices soar.

However, the sharp rise also saw a dramatic increase in inflation, with the August price index reaching a 27-year high of 8.5 percent, driven by the escalating cost of food and transportation.

Since then, the government has progressively slashed pump prices to RM1.80 as oil prices plunged due to the onset of global recession.