[Watch] Wee Ka Siong: Malaysia Sells Petrol Among World’s Cheapest — But Diesel Among The Most Expensive
MCA president Wee Ka Siong has called out a structural contradiction in Malaysia’s fuel pricing: RON95 ranks 9th cheapest in the world, while diesel sits at 103rd — among the most expensive globally.
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Malaysia ranks among the top ten countries with the cheapest petrol in the world.
At the same time, its diesel price sits at 103rd globally — placing it among the most expensive; both facts apply to the same country at the same time.
That contradiction is at the heart of a pointed critique delivered by MCA president Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong, who is calling on the government to urgently rethink how it manages fuel pricing — before the economic damage becomes irreversible.
Drawing on data from Global Petrol Prices, Wee noted that RON95 — branded as BUDI95 and available to all Malaysians at RM1.99 per litre — ranks as the 9th cheapest petrol in the world.
On the surface, that sounds like a win for consumers, but flip to diesel, and the picture changes entirely.
Malaysia’s diesel price ranks it 103rd globally — meaning the vast majority of countries offer cheaper diesel than Malaysia does.
In most countries, diesel is cheaper than petrol, or at least comparable to it. In Malaysia, diesel costs nearly three times as much as petrol. This is not just strange — this is extraordinary.
The East Malaysia Gap
Wee also flagged a disparity that rarely surfaces in mainstream fuel debates.
Diesel prices between Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah and Sarawak can differ by several multiples, leading him to challenge anyone to name another country where a single nation runs two such divergent fuel pricing systems at the same time.
Equally pointed was his pushback against the narrative often used to justify diesel subsidy cuts — that wealthy 4WD owners benefit most.
The reality, he said, is that the bulk of diesel consumption comes from agriculture and industry: forklifts, harvesters, generators, cranes, and factory lorries — none of which can work from home or switch to another fuel.
Petrol — maybe you can reduce usage. But diesel? How do you reduce that?
When diesel prices rise, he warned, the effects do not stay contained — farming, transport, manufacturing, and food costs all follow, with the ordinary consumer left to absorb the full weight of the chain reaction at the end.
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The Point That Is Hardest to Argue With
Wee saved his sharpest comparison for last.
Malaysia, an oil-producing nation, currently charges higher diesel prices than China, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia — countries that must import all their energy.
Countries with no oil resources can control prices better than us. Why can’t we?
He also raised the problem of price stickiness: when diesel prices push business costs up, consumer prices follow—, but when diesel prices fall, consumer prices rarely come back down, and businesses that shut down under the pressure do not simply reopen.
This is not a switch you can turn on and off. This is economic reality.
The Ayer Hitam MP is urging the government to understand the true structure of diesel consumption, grasp the full chain reaction its pricing decisions trigger, and act swiftly — because, in his words, “the cost is not just the price of fuel; the cost is the future of the national economy.”
It is a concern echoed on the ground.
As one industry observer noted on Threads, petrol station dealers earn just 15 sen per litre on RON95 and a mere 10 sen on diesel — margins so thin that a small station might clear only RM1,500 a month from fuel sales alone, with some stations now running out of stock entirely as even that sliver of margin breaks down.
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What Wee Didn’t Say
When the government rationalised diesel subsidies in June 2024, prices jumped from RM2.15 to RM3.35 per litre — a 56% increase — driven by years of rampant cross-border smuggling and disproportionate consumption by commercial operators rather than ordinary households.
The subsidy needed fixing; whether it needed fixing this aggressively is a separate question.
The Subsidised Diesel Control System (SKDS) was introduced specifically to protect legitimate industrial users — farmers, fishermen, and registered operators — from the full impact of the price increase.
Wee’s speech does not acknowledge that this mechanism exists, which makes the picture he paints slightly more alarming than the full policy reality.
The East Malaysia pricing gap has a constitutional and logistical basis.
Sabah and Sarawak have different fuel pricing arrangements, partly rooted in their terms of entry into Malaysia and partly in the higher cost of fuel distribution to remote areas.
It is a real disparity, but framing it purely as a policy failure without that context is incomplete.
READ MORE: Malaysia Did Not Send Its Diesel To The Philippines, It Just Processed Theirs
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