The message read: “All our vehicles are facing the issue of ‘no diesel available’ in petrol stations. Do you have any channel to bring up this matter? It is an ongoing issue but this time very serious as all stations ran out of quota.”

It will certainly affect our tourism industry as thousands of tourists need to be picked up or sent to the airports daily by tourist transport operators.

Drivers are likely to be late if they spend too much time on diesel hunts or may not show up altogether if their tour buses and vans run out of diesel.

This will result in passengers not being picked up upon arrival, which is not a great way to start their visit to our country. It is worse for those who missed their flights.

It has already been said that syndicates are smuggling to resell the fuel as the market price for unsubsidised diesel can be up to 90 sen higher per litre.

Syndicates are known to fill up huge quantities of diesel at petrol stations using modified tanks and different number plates.

Many petrol station operators, fearful of reprisals, do not prevent or report such activities. The least they could do is to install closed-circuit television cameras at diesel pumps and relay the recordings to the authorities.

The 1,000 enforcement officers from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry tasked with monitoring the sale of subsidised diesel as well as other subsidised and controlled items need to be more effective.

– Y.S. Chan, Kuala Lumpur