Higher diesel price bad for Sabahans, says SAPP

KOTA KINABALU - A Sabah opposition leader said the recent increase in the price of diesel would have a dramatic impact on the cost of living in the state as the fuel is mainly used in the transport sector.

Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) deputy president Richard Yong We Kong said the transport sector was one of the major supporting industries in the state.

The price of diesel is now higher than RON95 petrol, after the federal government reintroduced the weekly price-float mechanism this month.

RON95 is now being sold at RM1.98 a litre compared with RM2.18 for diesel.

Diesel, previously priced lower than RON95 and RON97, is mainly used by lorries, buses and fishing boats.

Yong said the price hike is likely to cause inflation.

“Sabah will have to bear with a higher cost of living in a slow economy,” he said, adding that the higher cost of diesel could have an impact on those who drive 4WD vehicles due to Sabah’s “atrocious roads”.

“In the past, the higher cost of maintaining such vehicles was somehow tolerable as the cost of diesel was substantially cheaper.

“Under the PH government, poorly maintained roads and the higher cost of diesel will inevitably mean an increase in the price of goods, especially in the interior parts of Sabah.”

He urged the government to come up with a better mechanism to determine prices of diesel, instead of merely following what the previous BN government had done.

He said when PH was in the opposition, it had complained about the weekly float-price mechanism as it brought a lot of uncertainties.

By Tracy Patrick