Teh tarik - Malaysia's most popular drink, should only cost an additional 1.25 sen a glass following the 25 sen per kilogram upward price adjustment for sugar.

The new teh tarik price taking into the impact of subsidy reduction of fuel and upward price adjustment would be around RM1.0155.

"Please note that these are projections only - cost changes may differ based on other factors," according to the "Fact Sheet: Subsidy Rationalisation" prepared by the Performance Management and Delivery Unit, Prime Minister's Department.

It said that subsidy reduction impact on teh tarik was just RM0.0030, while it will cost less than one sen for many other items, such as RM0.0024 per piece for the equally-popular roti canai, RM0.0060 for rice, RM0.0630 for meat and RM0.0105 for mee goreng.

The Government on Thursday announced that subsidies for petrol, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and sugar will be reduced as a first step to the gradual subsidy rationalisation programme, effective Friday.

Subsidies for RON95 petrol and diesel will be reduced by five sen a litre and LPG by 10 sen a kilogramme. This means RON 95 grade petrol will cost RM1.85 a litre while LPG will be sold at RM1.85 per kilogramme.

For sugar, the upward price adjustment is 25 sen a kilogramme.

The fact sheet also gave price comparisons of fuel price in the region, which showed that Malaysia's petrol price was the cheapest, at RM1.85 for RON95 compared with Thailand (RM4.12), Indonesia (RM2.48) and the Philippines (RM6.60).

Malaysia's new sugar price of RM1.90 was also much cheaper than Thailand's RM2.60, Indonesia (RM3.68) and the Philippines (RM3.46).

The lower sugar price in Malaysia had contributed to the growing problem of smuggling where law enforcement initiatives recovered more than 200 metric tons of sugar in 109 smuggling related arrests in 2009, and in 2008, an estimated RM628 million worth of subsidized diesel for fishermen, went to foreigners.

Source : Bernama