KPDN meeting with 5 oil companies, resolve diesel subsidy issue

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) will hold a meeting with five gas station companies this Thursday regarding the implementation of the Subsidized Diesel Control System (SKDS).

Berita Harian reports, it includes the issue of the delay in issuing ‘fleet cards’ for the use of land transport companies that carry goods so that the issuance can be accelerated.

Its minister, Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali, said that his party acknowledged the delay in the issuance of ‘fleet cards’ that occurred involving five gas station companies, particularly involving post-paid cards compared to prepaid ones because the issuance of post-paid cards required scrutiny of supporting documents.

He said, in the meeting later, the five gas station companies will have to present and show a mechanism to see how to speed up the issuance of the cards involved.

He said that the production involved 33 types of public land transport and goods so that proactive actions with the five oil companies could be implemented more quickly.

“If it is prepaid, there is no big issue to issue a ‘fleet card’ immediately, but an issue arises if the company applies for postpaid because of course the gas station company needs to see the attached documents, financial status and so on.

“So that will take some time for production. At the SKDS approval stage by KPDN, it is easy since we have already integrated with the Road Transport Department (JPJ) system.

“The issue is that after getting the approval, the application for the ‘fleet card’ also needs to be made,” he told reporters at the Closing Ceremony of the Central Zone KPDN Carnival Tour and Consumer Festival 2024 at the Indera Mulia Stadium, here today.

Armizan said that until yesterday, a total of 248,887 vehicles involving 88,029 land transport companies carrying goods in the country had been approved for diesel subsidies.

However, he said, until last July 8, only 165,897 ‘fleet cards’ were issued by the five local gas station companies involved.

He admitted that there have been improvements regarding the period for issuing ‘fleet cards’ by a number of gas station companies which previously took more than a month now has been shortened to 10 days.

“However, we still want this production mechanism to be accelerated.

“During the initial discussion, the company stated its commitment to issue the card within four to six weeks, then we shortened it to less than 10 days.

“Only in the postpaid aspect, they also need to take into account the financial status, but at the moment, the alternative is to use a cash card,” he said.

He did not rule out the possibility that the issuance of ‘fleet cards’ by gas stations may also be influenced by the attitude of the public who like to take a wait-and-see approach even though the SKDS was announced earlier, last March, which is three months before the subsidy targeting was implemented on June 10.

“The issue is that some companies take a wait-and-see approach. In fact, we have been promoting SKDS since last March, before the diesel subsidy targeting was announced. When the targeting was announced, many people flocked to apply.

“So when the ‘volume’ (number of requests) is so high, there is a bit of a ‘backlock’ (arrears). In terms of the ‘fleet card’ stock, we have actually received the commitment of the entire oil company involved in providing 1 million ‘fleet cards’,” he said.