Both Malaysian and Singaporean are still badly shaken by this piece news. Foreign registered vehicles can no longer fill up their petrol tank within 50km of the border effectively from this Friday.
Many Singaporean make weekly trips to Malaysia border towns like Johor for the cheaper food and petrol. Now with the ban, many might just stop visiting Malaysia altogether. Many business in Johor is going to be hit hard if Singaporeans decided not to visit. This had many Malaysian worrying about their business.
With the price of crude oil reaching a record high, Malaysia Government have came out creative ways to prevent the subsidized petrol benefiting foreigners instead of Malaysians. One suggestion is to use the Malaysia Identity Card to activate the petrol pump before refilling. But this are expensive to install at every oil station.
Indeed it is a harsh and unpopular decision which must be made for the good of Malaysia. Any petrol station found breaking the rule would be fine and jailed up to 3 years.
The only comforting news is that this ban would only be temporary till the Malaysia Government came out with a better management system for the fuel subsidy.
More information could be on found on The Star.
David can kiss his cheap petrol good-bye. However based on the currency exchange rate, it is still cheaper pumping petrol in Malaysia than in Singapore