KUALA LUMPUR – The extreme demand for petrol during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays caused several petrol stations to run out of supply and had to temporary shut their service.
The President of Petrol Dealers Association of Malaysia (PDAM), Datuk Khairul Annuar Abdul Aziz said, the demand for petrol during the festive season previously was only 20 to 30 percent higher than normal days.
However, during the hari raya celebration this year, the purchase of petrol had increased to 40 percent.
According to Khairul Annuar, the increment in demand was caused by the consumers who had not been able to return to their hometown due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) earlier.
They took the opportunity to celebrate Aidilfitri by going back to their hometown and visit their family and friends, which caused the increment usage of vehicles and petrol.
The extraordinary purchase of fuel was also driven by the spending ability of the consumers after they were allowed to withdraw their savings from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
“Generally, the sales of petrol this year is overly high. We couldn’t even increase our supply via the tanker lorry in time.
“Imagine, everyone wants to go back for raya. Everyone has EPF money. When they have money, they go back together. It’s true that all stations had extremely high sales,” he told MalaysiaGazette.
He also said that the temporary closure of several petrol stations due to the shortage of petrol supply was did not mean that the country is facing supply shortage of the fuel.
“The problem lies in the demand. When the demand increases excessively like his, can you imagine, they need to send from the depot to the stations using tanker lorries. We only have the same number of lorries. When there is an excessive demand, we may be slightly behind but there are no big issues here.
“Even if they close, it is only for a short while. At most, a day.
“If it is long, perhaps, they have run out of quota. If they run out of quota for a month, they need to wait until the next month. But, it is only the beginning of the month, perhaps, it is not because of quota,” Khairul Annuar explained.
The media reported earlier that five million vehicles were projected to hit the expressways nationwide for the Aidilfitri season. The Bukit Aman Traffic Investigation and Enforcement (JSPT) Deputy Director, Datuk Mohd Nadzri Hussain said that the rising trend was detected especially in the Klang Valley due the movements of the people making preparations for the festive season.
Meanwhile, in last March, the government allowed the special RM10,000 withdrawal of the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
The EPF received 5.3 million applications for the withdrawal since 1 April with total withdrawal amounting to RM40.1 billion. -MalaysiaGazette
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