Thursday May 29, 2008

Foreigners to pay full price for fuel, says Pak Lah

By ELIZABETH LOOI

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said an announcement on how this would be done would be made when the time was right.

“Foreigners will definitely have to pay the full price when we make the announcement and (when we) enforce it immediately,” he told a press conference in Parliament here yesterday.

Abdullah said some people had taken advantage of the country’s cheaper fuel prices by smuggling it into other countries for a profit.

He also said the Government would decide on the use of the MyKad for petrol purchases soon.

On another matter, Abdullah said it was all right for Umno members, including those who were MPs, to make constructive criticism against the Government or party policies as long as they got their facts right.

“Our current practice is not like we are going to take serious action against them, but if what was said was factually wrong, then the party must take action,” he said.

He was asked to comment on backbencher Pasir Salak MP Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman’s call to Abdullah to review the position of Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.

Tajuddin had said in the Dewan Rakyat that Zaid had made baseless allegations against him that had also insulted the Prime Minister by going against the Government’s policies.

Abdullah said Zaid and Tajuddin would eventually become good friends again after this incident.

On the Election Commission’s proposal to re-register voters, the Prime Minister said it was brought up by commission chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, but he had not discussed it with the commission yet.

On Terengganu Mentri Besar Datuk Ahmad Said’s request for the Federal Government to return the state the oil royalties, Abdullah said the Government had not made a decision on the matter yet.

On talk of Barisan Nasional Sabah and Sarawak MPs crossing over to the Opposition, Abdullah said he had not received any report from the Anti-Corruption Agency on the matter.