Price increases driving Malaysian consumers crazy

December 20, 2013 Leave a comment

Price increases driving Malaysian consumers crazy

Wednesday, December 18, 2013 – 09:01

The Star/Asia News Network

PETALING JAYA – With the sugar, fuel and cigarette price increases and an impending electricity tariff hike, a planned toll hike is driving consumers round the bend. Teacher Roger Ho, 28, said his toll costs would go up by RM4 daily if the proposed hike, as posted on Facebook, is to be believed.“I travel (here) fr om Serdang daily, which costs me RM8.20 (S$3.17) both ways. With the hike, it will cost RM12.20 – the price of a pack of cigarettes!” he said, following a statement by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar that the increase in toll rates was unavoidable.

Consultant Ray Duddaver, 40, lives in Kajang and currently spends RM5.90 daily on tolls.

“According to the price list floating around online, after Jan 1, I will be paying RM8.40 daily. That’s a RM50 monthly increase!”

Research analyst Gerard Lye, 23, spends about RM25 a month on tolls. The hike will see him spending an extra RM15 monthly, he said.

“The hike would force me to choose toll-free roads which are further and often more jammed.

“I have to gauge which is worth it – using less petrol and paying more toll or wasting petrol in traffic jams.”

Taxi driver V. Muniandy who runs the Klang-Shah Alam route says the increase in toll rates will affect the livelihood of cabbies.

“We just incurred an increase in petrol price and this impending toll hike will drain us,” he said, adding the only way to counter the toll hike would be for them to increase their fares.

Meanwhile, 23-year-old Rachel Yong hopes the Government would improve public transport if it intends to go ahead with increasing toll rates.

“If toll rates go up, I will have to raise my rates and pet owners may choose to hire more established pet transporters,” said Kavitah.

Filed under Macro Trends

Unknown's avatarAbout bambooinnovator
Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

Leave a comment