Government teh tarik blunders?

My favourite Hokkien mee costs RM 4.50 per plate nowadays. It was RM3.80 before June 08 and was just RM3.50 a year ago. A difference of RM1.00. My regular mamak corner also increases my usual teh tarik and tosei.

My neighbourhood chicken rice was just RM3.3o per plate a year ago and now I am paying RM4.00 for it. Serving still the same. No extras.

Consumers has been complaining why the prices of food is still the hike up price since the petrol price already dropped drastically. Price of petrol per litre was increased from RM1.92 to RM2.70 by the government in June 08 with the reason being the impact of global price increase of crude oil per barrel. So the manufacturers, transporters, supplier, retaurants, hawkers and whatsoever merrily took the opportunity to increase their prices citing sky rocketing costs.

Now crude oil per barrel already dropped to below USD70, why the food and consumers goods is still the hike up price? The law of the market is that, whenever the costs goes up, the selling price will go up; whenever the costs goes down, the price will remained the same. No use reasoning with the hawkers. I already done that umpteen times since last week. They will always blamed the suppliers or just put on a wide smile. If we asked the suppliers, they will blamed it to the farmers, transporters and whatever they can think of. The finger pointing need to stop somewhere isn't it?

Well, I think the buck should stop with the government! Why did they increase the petrol price with such a huge different? Now when the oil prices dropped, the government just reduce the petrol price bit by bit, sen by sen. Do they expect the Hokkien mee and chicken rice seller to reduce their price by 5 sen or 10 sen each time? No way man! They will tell you the petrol price reduction is so small that it makes no difference to their costs!

So, did the government make the following blunders.

1. Increase the petrol price drastically by 40% margin in June 08, which ultimately provides a good reason for everyone in the market to increase prices for their goods.

2. Reduce the petrol price in stages and in small percentage each time at about 5% only, which does not make much difference to the costs and conveniently no changes to the food selling price.

With just a little price slashing campaign side-show from the hypermarkets, do we expect all businesses to follow suit? Maybe the politician are too busy campaigning themselves to really take note on the peoples well-being. - Loka