Govt urged to provide soft loans to petrol dealers

The Petrol Dealers Association of Malaysia (PDAM) has urged the government to consider providing financial support to petrol station owners to help them recover and start their business again after the Movement Control Order (MCO) is lifted.

PDAM president Datuk Khairul Annuar Abdul Aziz said at the moment many station owners do not have the funds to buy enough petrol to cater to the expected increase in demand when MCO is lifted.

He said the downtrend in fuel prices and weaker traffic due MCO had badly affected petrol station operators.

"At the start of March all the way to mid of April, the price of petrol went down several times. When the price dropped drastically, we lost heavily because we bought it earlier at a higher price and we sell it at a lower price.

"All in all the industry lost about RM170 million ...on average around RM60,000 to RM100,000 per station," he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama TV via Skype.

Khairul Annuar said the problem will arise when the MCO lifted as petrol station operators do not have the money to cater to the increase demand of petrol then.

"The issue will arise when the government lifts the MCO and people start to work again on a normal basis. The matter will be acute as our dealers' working capital have shrunk due to price fall and losses suffered during MCO.

"If the government can consider giving us a soft loan then it will be great, a soft loan will be helpful," he said.

-- BERNAMA