The government is studying the idea of setting up floor price for the sale of petrol in the country, Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said.

However, he stressed that the government will maintain the float system to set the retail price of RON95, RON97 and diesel in February.

“We are studying what is the lowest price we can set. But for the time being, we will still use the float system,” he told Astro AWANI when contacted.

He also said that the government will maintain setting the new price of petrol and diesel at the end of the month and not mid-month.

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“We will not set the new petrol price at mid-month even though there is a drop in crude oil prices. We will do it at the end of every month,” he said.

The government had implemented the Managed Float system to determine the price of RON95, RON97 petrol and diesel from Dec 1, 2014.

The managed float system was introduced after fuel subsidies were removed when world oil prices dropped towards the end of last year.

In October last year, the government decided not to give the public prior notice on fuel price changes to prevent petrol pump operators from controlling the sale of fuel to consumers.

READ: No early announcement on fuel price changes to prevent manipulation - Hamzah

Hamzah said the notice would only be issued to the PDAM at midnight on the last day of every month.

Astro AWANI today contacted Petrol Dealers Association of Malaysia (PDAM) president Datuk Hashim Othman to get his response to this matter.