Foreign vehicles begin to reduce diesel content at the border

BUKIT KAYU HITAM: The presence of foreign vehicles filling up with diesel at gas stations near the country’s border gates here is seen to have decreased significantly since the fuel subsidy targeting was announced on June 10.

Bernama’s survey at several gas stations located near the Bukit Kayu Hitam Immigration, Customs, Quarantine and Security (ICQS) Complex found that not many vehicles with Thai registration numbers fill up with diesel at the station.

Although the situation may have caused sales to drop, some operators and workers of the gas stations involved expressed relief as it was seen to curb any diversion and diesel smuggling activities.

The operator of a gas station in Changlun, about eight kilometers from Bukit Kayu Hitam ICQS Complex, Mohamad Nekmat Ariffin, 41, said the presence of foreign vehicles at his gas station decreased after the government enforced the new price of diesel at RM3.35 per litre.

However, he said the situation did not affect his business because 80 percent of diesel sales were dedicated to logistics companies who had become regular customers to get the fuel source.

“Only 20% of our diesel quota is sold to private or other commercial vehicles, including foreign vehicles which are limited to only 20 liters per purchase.

“There used to be a lot of diesel four-wheel drive foreign vehicles here, but now there are only passenger vehicles such as vans, their presence has decreased significantly,” he told Bernama here today.

Mohamad Nekmat, who runs the 35-year-old gas station left by his late father, also feels that targeting the diesel subsidy is appropriate to curb the misappropriation of the fuel.

“Sometimes foreign vehicles or parties that want to smuggle diesel will fill up at some stations but we don’t know their movements or how many times they have filled up with diesel. So, when subsidy targeting is implemented, hopefully no one will try to smuggle diesel,” he said.

In the meantime, he admitted that there was a decrease in diesel sales at his gas station, but it was due to the logistics company shifting to other gas stations and some companies delayed their vehicle trips while waiting for the fleet card to get the fuel subsidy.

An employee of a gas station on the Bukit Kayu Hitam-Jitra Highway, Muhammad Irfan Kamarulan, 22, said the number of foreign vehicles filling up with diesel at the gas station had decreased by more than 50% after the enforcement of the new price.

“We sell two types of diesel, namely Euro 5 B10 and Euro 5 B7. In the past, sales for B10 in a day were about 8,000 liters but now it has decreased to 5,000 to 6,000 liters.