Najib: ban on refueling foreign cars delayed

The issue on whether petrol pumps in border towns can sell fuel to foreign-registered vehicles is still unclear, as different people in different ministries seem to be saying different things, all within the span of a few days.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry Datuk Shahrir Samad was originally reported to say that the sale of fuel to foreign cars will be banned from Friday the 30th last month onwards, but on Friday his ministry issued a letter saying that the ban would only come into force this week for the Thai border towns, and on June 9th for the Singapore border towns.

On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak said the decision on whether and when to curb foreign cars from filling up will only be decided tomorrow (Tuesday). So for the moment, the fuel business should be able to go on as usual at the border towns.

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Paul Tan

After dabbling for years in the IT industry, Paul Tan initially began this site as a general blog covering various topics of personal interest. With an increasing number of readers paying rapt attention to the motoring stories, one thing led to another and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

Comments

  • msmar_453 (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 12:22 pm

    Why wee need to ban them for refuelling?
    why not just sell them at a price of non subsidized petrol/diesel..
    or at the same price at their hometown? or just put a separate gas pump with premium price?
    what will happen to the petrol station operator (esp at the border) if majority of their customers are foreigner?
    If they are not allowed to refuel, isn’t it meaning that it can be no Singaporean heading to Perlis or no Thai’s people move to J.B?
    Really, I DON’T GET IT!

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  • Paul Tan on Jun 02, 2008 at 12:30 pm

    The ban is for border towns. Past 50km from the border, they can refuel anywhere they like.

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  • najibest (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 1:19 pm

    if you ask me, i support the ban wholeheartedly…why? because it’s just a temporary solution. the main aim here is to block foreigners from exploiting our cheap subsidized fuel and any suggestions such as selling them fuel at unsubsidized price right now is not feasible as our petrol station owners bought the fuel at subsidized rates

    the main thing that petrol station owners need to understand is that, this won’t be a permanent thing. and for those who are malaysian citizens working in singapore using singaporean registered vehicles, i really don’t understand their grouses. they do by all means earn their living in Singapore Dollars (which is like 2.3x higher than RM). so even if they’re earning little money, say SGD 500/month, they’re still earning more than a Malaysian who’s earning RM500/month

    do remember that our government is spending money for every liter that is pumped out at the petrol station and at RM1+/liter, that’s a lot of money we’re spending for people who don’t pay taxes to our country and who don’t have to pay regular toll to get to and back from work

    another thing, for those petrol station owners who claims that they would lose money because of the ruling, i would have to say, welcome to the real world. it’s time they feel the pain of other petrol station owners who don’t earn as much because their station are not frequented by foreigners who always pump their car full tank before returning to their country

    it’s time for us to buck up, the G is having a hard time subsidizing our own Malaysian citizen (all other wastages are fact of life, nothing we can do about it unless we try another G :) ) so let’s not spend money subsidizing other people as well. and also, how much would it hurt the Malaysian economy with the new ruling? not that much I would say as from the current trend, fuel prices is going up anyway and Maybe ourselves Malaysians won’t be getting subsidized fuel soon…just my 2 cents….c&c are always welcome

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  • White Jack (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    G always say something before “Pakai Otak”. After hearing comments here and there, they only start to think :)

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  • BrakeFader (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    So what happens if a foreign car runs out of fuel in the 50KM radius area? It can be controlled that incoming cars must have full tank before entering, but what about cars that are about to leave the border town is on low fuel? Have they thought of that?

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  • RM (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    Fickle minded morons they are. Pre-announce the measures which seemed pretty certain (even spelled out the amount of punitive damages in case of infringement) got everyone riled up and now backtrack only to decide on it tomorrow (and we just know what the outcome will be). They did it with the 2006 NAP, came up with controversial measures, riled up everybody and then mid 2007 “tarik balik” and allowed Open AP holders to import any make and model car under 5 years old including models controlled by franchise AP holders. Same old same old.

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  • mitlanevo (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 3:25 pm

    remove fuel subsidy + abandon road tax = problem solved…..

    anyone agree?

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  • low_profile (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 3:57 pm

    Mt comment still:
    Charge the foreigner car petrol tax before they enter malaysia. Simple as that. If really their fuel used up within the 50km border??? As the tow to tow back their car to thier country??

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  • BrakeFader (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 4:39 pm

    mitlanevo, roadtax is peanuts compared to fuel subsidy. Road tax for cars of 1.3 L and below is cheaper than a tank of fuel.

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  • Archer (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 5:09 pm

    If all this controls can’t be put in place in time before some other system is created, why not just allow foreign cars to buy limited amount of subsidized fuel, say RM20 or RM25 worth or 10 to 15 liters max as an example.

    If Singapore can impose 3/4 tank rule on their cars, we can also do the same by limiting the amount sold to foreign vehicles, this is better than total ban. Just reduce the amount they allowed to buy and make the Gas Station operator responsible for this by law for the moment. If Malaysians holding Singapore PR are unhappy because they own Singapore registered vehicles then at least in this way they have right to buy up to 10 or 15 liters within restricted zone (50km) which is more than enough to get them back into Singapore.

    Ideally in the long run all petrol subsidy should be removed, this will force more people to use Public Transport which will force the Government to work real hard to improve Public Transport. But I guess that is still a long way off for this to realistically happen.

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  • mytouch (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 7:10 pm

    Another soap opera from the G…waliao ehh,thnik 1st mah before act,now everybpdy confuse,haiz…Maybe they can take the idea where implement a new calculation for foreign car at every petrol station,so with this,everyone will no need to confuse anymore,& foreign car also will not empty tank back to their country,& everybody happy…

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  • mystvearn (Member) on Jun 02, 2008 at 7:45 pm

    how about we charge surplus on fuel on foreign cars. Better right. Singaporean must come to Malaysia. We see SG plate, chare RM7 for 1 litre. Sure they all curse us like hell, but they have nowhere else to go. Don’t think can go to Pulau Batu Putih with their luxury cars. The surplus we charge them, goes back to subsidise our fuel. Malaysia can survive without foreign piling on our roads

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  • azrai (Member) on Jun 03, 2008 at 7:11 am

    Late action. how about levi those vehicle for example RM50-RM70 per car. it makes sense.

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  • Alifz (Member) on Jun 03, 2008 at 8:38 am

    BrakeFader said,
    June 2, 2008 @ 2:22 pm

    So what happens if a foreign car runs out of fuel in the 50KM radius area? It can be controlled that incoming cars must have full tank before entering, but what about cars that are about to leave the border town is on low fuel? Have they thought of that?

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    Singapore Vehicles has madatory to fill tank at least 3/4 of full tank before enter Malaysia, which in average good for 300km journey

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  • Alifz (Member) on Jun 03, 2008 at 8:40 am

    mystvearn said,
    June 2, 2008 @ 7:45 pm

    Don’t think can go to Pulau Batu Putih with their luxury cars.

    ___________________________________________________________________________

    Even if they can go there they have to cross Malaysia’s border (Middle Rocks)..hahaha

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  • tokmoh (Member) on Jun 03, 2008 at 11:05 pm

    BrakeFader said,
    June 2, 2008 @ 2:22 pm

    So what happens if a foreign car runs out of fuel in the 50KM radius area? It can be controlled that incoming cars must have full tank before entering, but what about cars that are about to leave the border town is on low fuel? Have they thought of that?

    >>>

    Then the Thais should do like the Singaporeans do as mentioned by Alifz. Serves them right for stealing from our rakyat’s money all these while.

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  • Zharfan on Nov 15, 2009 at 5:41 am

    It's a stupidest law also not very effective. Many Malaysian works in Singapore owning Singaporean cars are holding Mykad. If shows Mykad at gas station, they still can refuel foreign plates just show Malaysian IC. Some of them owning Thai registered vehicles due to avoid Malaysian 300% import duty on Japanese car. Luckily in 2009, no restriction imposed.

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