Tiong from Parliament BINTULU-The present retail price of petroleum products are still lower than that of what the consumers could have paid if the Government is not giving any tax exemption or subsidy to the products. The Bintulu Member of Parliament, Dato' Seri Tiong King Sing said the Government still had to bear a substantial amount of liability from the tax exemption and subsidy for the products to ensure the last increment would not burden the consumers. "Although the government had raised the retail price of RON97 (unleaded fuel), RON92 (Regular) and diesel, as well as one sen for LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas), it is still lower than what the consumers could have paid," he added. The government had recently announced a price hike for petroleum products which took effect from 1 May this year where per litre of RON 97 in Sarawak was tagged at 131 sen, 128 sen for RON 92 and 71.8sen for diesel. LPG was priced at RM1.37 per kg. Tiong made these statement after obtaining the answers from the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumers Affairs at the current Parliamentary session. Without tax exemption and subsidy from the Government, the retailed price for per litre of RON 97 would be 161.72 sen, 157.71 sen for RON92, 103.50 sen for diesel and 161.776 sen per kilogramme of LPG. With the new price for the petroleum products, the government would still be bearing tax exemption and subsidy liability of RM253.2 million and for August 2002, the government's liability to maintain the current price is projected to be at RM2,561.7 million. Tiong was also informed by the Ministry that the price hike was justified by the increase in the world crude oil price from US$19.65 per barrel to US$24.51 in April this year. He was also assured that the price of petroleum products on sale at filling stations are controlled and fixed by the government to prevent the retailers from increasing the price indiscriminately.