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Friday January 19, 2007

PM: No revision in retail petrol prices for now



KUALA LUMPUR: The Government will keep an eye on the falling oil price in the global market before making any decision whether to revise the fuel price, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

The Prime Minister said the Government knew that the high petrol and diesel prices had brought about hardship to the man-in-street.

"We want to do what is best for the people. We always have their interest at heart," he said after chairing the Sixth National SME Development Council meeting here on Friday.

Abdullah, who is Finance Minister said oil prices tended to fluctuate and "at the moment" the Government would not be making a decision to revise fuel prices.

"Oil price could go up again. It's better for us to monitor the trend to see if it does not rise again. Any decision (to revise fuel prices) would be an important one so we don't want to be too quick in making that decision.

"It's good to keep on monitoring prices," he said.

Light sweet crude fell below US$50 per barrel on Thursday for the first time since May 25 2005.

It has remained around that level on Friday.

This is the fifth week that oil prices have been on the decline.

After the US led war on oil-producing Iraq in 2003, oil prices have been climbing upwards and mid last year it hit a record high of US$78 a barrel.

Last year, the Malaysia government had raised petrol prices up by 30sen as a result of rising global oil prices, to keep the rising subsidies on fuel at a manageable level.

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