Maybe she has those luxurious container big rig where she can relax and check out LYN while the lorry stuck in traffic jam. Perhaps that is why she is able to always reply to this forum ma. The container is just her second home with all the high tech and comfy settings.

This is one topic that my friends and I have had a lot of debate. It comes to a point that I realized giving out subsidy based on salary range may not be the ideal way to move forward. Why? Well, simply because they are ppl who drive a BMW 7-series and yet earning only RM3K or less. These are those who own their own company and apply creative-accounting. Though not many are doing creative-accouting but those that benefited most from the current subsidy scheme probably falls under this category.

Well, one of the way to once-and-for-all put this subsidy issue to rest is abolish the whole darn subsidy scheme and as well as all taxes related to car - AP, road tax, road toll, etc. Let the petrol price float and let us to decide on our own if we want to drive a car. In this way, those that can afford will buy a cheaper/affordable car but yet pay the price of higher fuel cost. However, this is not possible in KL simply because the transportation system sucks big time.

So, why can't our government settle this matter amicably? Well, it is their own 'undoing'. They did not do a proper town planning for Malaysia cities and we the Rakyat have to suffer big time. Whatever scheme they are planning and did last time simply benefited a selected few. What kind of planning is that!!!

Anyway, the other method is through tax rebate though it is not perfect as they are still many earning RM3k or less but drive a big car (though it might be company car). Through tax rebate, you will be given the rebate based on your declared income. And you have to keep the petrol receipt to submit with your tax form (credit to my friend for this idea). For instance, total income of RM36k p.a. will give you $x rebate for $y of petrol. Of course, with lower tax means you can't afford to buy big car too. Mr. IRB will come to you if you can afford a BMW 7-series while earning RM3K. So even if you drive a big company car, unless you don't claim the petrol from your company, then you can submit the petrol receipt. Once you claim your company, then there will be no rebate or depends on the company tax.

Well, these are just some wishful-thinking ideas that I doubt even if the Government has the balls to suggest/recommend, many parties will lobby to stop it. This is Malaysia. The Government has balls to suggest but no balls to implement the right thing for its citizen.

No offence, you might have been brain-washed by our Government to not-to-compare/compete-with-Singapore but compete-with-3rd-world-country-like-Africa. This is rubbish. How will we improve and develop if comparing against someone who is already lagging behind us?

Well, if you want another fair comparison. Let's just take Pinang or KL to compare with Singapore. Pinang and KL are almost as big as Singapore if not smaller. So is the transportation system in Pinang and KL any better than Singapore? This is a joke!

Yes, this is the direct impact to everyone - all walks of life. Well, I am putting the blame on the government for the fact that they painted a wrong idea to attract more FDI into the country. Our CPI (inflation rate) is rigged! They have so many controlled items on this CPI list and they can basically dictate how high or how low a CPI rate they want to show us. So when CPI rate is low, do you think you will get decent increment or decent pay? We can keep dreaming about it.

The government is still selling our 'strength' that this country offer cheap labour, cheap export, cheap raw materials, everything cheap as we can't compare with Singapore, Thailand or now even maybe Indonesia on providing better service, better quality. So how can you keep the lid on the pay-scale forever when the commodity prices worldwide is going crazy? You can actually - in Malaysia context. That means you folk out more to sibsidize us. That means this is exactly the situation they are in. They can't afford to do that anymore.

So by right, our earning and living standard should rise according to the increase in commodity prices. Thanks for how our government is functioning, we are all suffering now. They also suffer - for have to pull out their hair to settle this issue. They can't afford to let commodity prices rise significantly as it is difficult to ask all companies to immediately start increase our salary in line with the price increase. This is crazy.

They should do away with competing with other countries on offering more 'cheap whatever'. They should just improve on doing things better and let the country prosper. Build on our strength. For instance, our strength is we our multi-language country. We have a strong advantage compare to countries like India, China and Vietnam as our English is better. So we should build on that and stick to teach Sciene and Math using English. Those who call for teaching Math and Science using Malay are not doing your children any good in the future. Give it a good think-about-it if you still want to support them or that call. When we lost that edge (English language), we can kiss goodbye to everything. It is not that I disrespect Malay. You can still make Malay the national language and teach it in school. But for goodness sake, do the right thing for the country and next generation - improve our English and put our next generation on a level that is able to compete with the rest of the world.

All in all, it is expected that with any increase in petrol price, everyone will be affected. If the increase is huge, the economy will be affected and the KLSE will be affected too. I reckon an increase of 30cents or more will see a decline in KLSE. 20cents or lower will see short term decline - so most likely we will see this and our Government will still complain all the time for have to subsidize us.

Just my 2 cents.

Yes, it was indeed way off topic. Apologies to all.

I am interested in MayBulk too but it it has been a long time since I read up on MayBulk or the Baltic index (is that the shipping cost thingy?). Can anyone shed more lights? If possible, what is the best TP to go in?


I don't care how much they raise. The moment the raise this much, the faster the KLSE fall and the better for us with load of bullets to shoot. Better do up a shopping list for all good KLSE counters.

Hmm....it is very quiet in here. Can't get any news from you guys on the market......

Did you crystal ball tell you when the big-fall is? I am waiting for the big fall too but my portfolio already fell big now

Hopefully it won't take too long to wait.

Gosh!!! Anyone knows what is wrong with YTLPower? Its price has been beaten down from RM2.50 to RM1.90!!! My only guess is that the fuel price hike, the potential IPP contract renegotiation might affect their earning. Other that that what other news is affecting it?

Gosh! I saw my profit *puff* gone!!! Just sold it at RM1.90 for some McD chicken foldover.

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Added on June 27, 2008, 9:33 amOh, BTW, is there a way for us to check which company bought back the most of their share? And also which counter normally practice giving back their treasury share to shareholders? Well, I like YTLPower cos now I have 1000 free units in YTLPower though I have recovered my capital. I will leave it there to grow 'golden eggs' in the long long long term.

So I am looking for another counter to try my luck.

This post has been edited by cantdecide: Jun 27 2008, 09:33 AM

Can anyone help me to complete this list of all IPP (independant power producers) in Malaysia?

To my knowledge, I only know of the following:
1. YTLPower
2. Malakoff
3. Genting
4. Tanjong.

I am trying to see if all their share price is going downtrend since the fuel hike and the talk of potential IPP renegotiation.

Please help. Thank you.

OK, so now I have:
1. YTLPower
2. Genting
3. Tanjong
4. Malakoff (can someone please tell me the listing parent company cos I can't find Malakoff anymore and if my memory serves me right I know Tan Sri Mokhtar has privatised it)
5. Sime Darby

Thanks for the detailed analysis.

Though the dilution due to the warrant is expected but this is way over my expectation. All I was expecting was the price to hover above RM2.00 which is still above my buying price and I can keep earning decent dividend. With the current price, it is lucky that I sold off all units last week without getting my capital burnt. I will wait for it to bottom and scope up a few units later.

The other worry is the IPP negotation and the windfall tax. Now I understand why smart businessmen and investors do not like Malaysia market. They simply make rules that is not friendly to the economy. Sigh...

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Added on June 30, 2008, 3:31 pmYa, cash is king now. It is better to cash out and stay at the sideline while waiting for everything to unfold itself. Well, I hope we the Rakyat dont have to suffer because of some clowns trying to play some tricks.

This post has been edited by cantdecide: Jun 30 2008, 03:31 PM