It has been announced that the price of RON 97 will be floated according to market forces starting on June 7, which means that its current price of RM2.47 per litre will remain in place until then. Ahead of that, a question has come up with regards to its pricing independent of the market float that it will be subjected to.
This has to do with the goods and services tax (GST). With June 1 here and zero-rated GST upon us, there should be an adjustment on how the fuel is priced as a result of that removal – the price of RON 97 has been GST-inclusive up to today (and thus theoretically RM2.33 with GST omitted), but the announcement made by finance minister Lim Guan Eng yesterday stated that the retail price of RON 97 would remain in place (until the float next week) despite having 0% GST.
Other unregulated fuels such as Petron Blaze 100, which is priced at RM3.08 per litre, and Shell V-Power Racing, which currently goes for RM3.12 per litre, were also priced GST-inclusive up till today.
This of course doesn’t affect RON 95 and diesel, which was not imposed with GST to begin with. Prices of these will also remain fixed as per the announcement made on the matter – RON 95 will go for RM2.20 per litre and Euro 2M diesel for RM2.18 per litre, while Euro 5 diesel will be priced at RM2.28 per litre.
Users who have filled their cars up with RON 97 today have noted that the 6% GST calculation stated before the final total has been removed in receipts, but with the retail price remaining as is, it begs the question – what actually happens to that sum now that there’s no need to pay input tax, or more specifically, where does it go to (until June 7, at least)? Any thoughts on the subject? Share them with us below.
