PADANG TERAP: Fewer foreign-registered vehicles are filling up their vehicles with diesel in Kuala Nerang here since June 10, the start of the diesel subsidy rationalisation.
A pump attendant said: "Yes, we haven't seen as many of them since June 10.
"The diesel subsidy plan is deterring them from coming here."
Kuala Nerang is 30km from the Malaysian-Thai border checkpoint in Kota Putra, Durian Burung.
Besides Kuala Nerang, Changlun near Bukit Kayu Hitam is the other border town in Kedah.
Foreign-registered vehicles used to fill up at petrol stations in these towns.
The huge gap between subsidised diesel and petrol prices in Malaysia made it a lucrative cross-border contraband commodity.
However, cross-border smuggling took a hit this month
Under the diesel subsidy plan, the pump price of diesel rose from RM2.15 per litre to RM3.35 to reflect its global price.
An employee at a petrol station in Padang Sanai said: "There used to be between 40 and 50 foreign-registered vehicles filling up here daily, but the number has dropped by more than half since June 10.
"Those who continuing to fill up their vehicles are probably Thais working in restaurants here."
The same situation was seen in Changlun, where diesel sales have dropped by half.
Muhammad Irfan Kamarulan, a supervisor at a station, said: "We used to sell about 8,000 litres of diesel daily, but sales have dropped to 5,000 litres.
"The number of foreign-registered vehicles filling up at the station has dropped since June 10."
He said the other factor was that local transportation companies were waiting to obtain fleet cards to buy diesel at a subsidised price.
"We've spotted some foreign-registered vehicles tying to fill up their vehicles with diesel a few times a day.
"So we set a RM30 limit on them."
Despite the drop in the number of foreign-registered vehicles buying diesel, a petrol station operator, who declined to give his name, said fuel smuggling syndicates would not easily give up.
"We heard that syndicates are shifting their target to RON95 petrol. They're probably lying low now as the authorities are monitoring the situation."
He said syndicates might be planning to smuggle RON95 petrol as it was still subsidised by the government.
"A litre of subsidised RON95 costs RM2.05 per litre, while it costs more than RM5 in Thailand, so this will definitely attract syndicates' interest."
