How to Get Your Petrol Rebate!

Do you own a car with up to 2,000 CC engine? Or a pick-up truck or jeep with up to 2,500 CC engine? How about motorcycle with up to 250 CC engine?

If you answer yes to the above, you are entitled to a rebate amounted to RM625 for the 4 wheelers while RM150 for 2 wheelers. Provided of course your vehicle are powered by either diesel or petrol.

For those owners like me who recently renew you vehicle's road tax (between 1 April 2008 to 31 May 2008), you are entitled to claim the rebates from the post office near you from this Saturday onwards.

Source: http://www.feedtheneedy.net/

If you are just as lost as I am on how to go about doing it, well, I just received an e-mail from my colleague on how to go about doing it. Basically, you (as in the vehicle owner) need to bring along your original MyKad / Army Card / Police Card and fill up a form in the post office. Once you submitted your form and your identification card to the counter, they will scan your fingerprint for verification. Once it is confirmed that you are you, you will receive your cash rebate.

It sounded simple right? As a precautionary measure, please bring your original car registration card and/or insurance documents proving you own that vehicle.

You may never know you are so "fortunate" to be told the online system is down and you have to come back another day. This is of course not a guarantee but at least you can try to argue your case at the counter and hopefully you get paid.

Otherwise, well, this is still Bolehland.

Will The Hill Ever Be Enough?

Finally my best friend wedded last Saturday. I am so glad because he has been in love with the same lady for a longer duration than I have with my wife and to finally watch them enter into a commitment for life is something I have longed for. I can tell you there are silent prayers than go out not too long ago that this knot be finally tied and praise be to the Lord that it did!...:)

Unlike my own wedding, I didn't quite participate much in his. I did help out here and there but I feel kind of bad because I was never heavily involved from the beginning till the end (then again, I know I am a control freak so it is best I don't ruin his...:P). My only consolation is when I saw the montage, he specially thanked both my wife and I for making the montage possible (btw, we took the easy route, we hired a professional to take the photos and make it into a montage).

One thing I noticed about the montage is that the pictures of their childhood days till the day they grew up and met have been inserted there for all to see. I realised I never saw their childhood photos. Come to think of it, I have lost touch with all my childhood friends. Those were the simpler days where RM5 can buy you good plastic toys in pasar malam on Friday nights and certainly pay meals for more than 1 person. Can the same be said of that value of RM5 today?

Got this from an e-mail forwarded by Seaqueen. Apparently, this is what her piggy bank looked like after the petrol price hike...:P

I am not sure about you but I have been taught the virtue of savings from young. Being frugal and worked the extra hours were what my grandpa did to save enough to buy his coffee shop. But I wonder, is this a virtue which we should teach our children today in light of this era of high inflation?

Think of it this way, how will the old adage, "Sedikit demi sedikit, lama lama menjadi bukit" apply when the money you save today would very well be worth less in a year's time?

Also, by teaching our young ones to save in the tabung where it earns next to nothing, how will he/she afford to buy what he/she wants? He/she may look at the price of the teddy today which probably worth RM200 and start saving RM1 a day, by the time he/she saves enough, the teddy might cost more than RM200. It is a moving goalpost which ultimately places him/her worse off than before.

Similarly, if we tell him/her to save to buy a house, he/she must be really frugal and save a lot just so as he/she can afford to pay for the downpayment. The next thing you know, the dream house prices would shoot up in today's economy and he/she will never be able to buy it.

With 12 month maturity fixed depost rate going at 3.7% while CPI for 2008 expected to rise to 5-6%, isn't it better to buy the things we want today rather than save for tomorrow?

So what sort of virtue will we impart to our children? Afterall, circumstances change requiring us to either adapt or perish. Similarly, shouldn't we teach them usefully soft skills early so as they will not have just one fixated idea on how to get what they wanted?

Is the World An Excuse For Us?

Yesterday, as I was busy listening out to explanations given by a client here in Bangkok when I received 3 smses. And it was about the impending fuel hike. Yup, the 40% or 78 sens fuel price hike.

In Mahathir's era, prices were not as erratic and certainly he could afford a 5-20 sen increase. In Abdullah's era, I guess the norm is 50 sens or more given petrol price has risen from USD20s to USD120s per barrel.

After the meeting, as the driver was taking us home, I was told that here in Bangkok they pay 40 Baht per litre. That is about RM4 per litre, at least RM1.30 more than what we are paying in Malaysia. Somehow, the Thais are still driving their vehicles on the road, they are paying the higher price. Life is not exactly easier but things are more abuzz here.

Even my client mentioned Bangkok is an exciting place. Because of the unstable political scenario here, things are moving as fast as it should...yet.

In Malaysia, we have political uncertainty. And certainly, the old petrol price are unsustainable. But to hit the public with 41% increase? It is not the rich I am worried about. It is the everyday ordinary rakyat. How can they cope? This fuel hike will invariably be the cause for many more price hikes to come, be it goods or services.

The Government keep harping that it is a global phenomenon and it cannot be helped. But is that kind of explanation an end to itself? To the ordinary people who earn less than RM2K, if their petrol bill is RM200, techically, a simple calculation means they have to fork out another RM82 or 8.2% of their net pay if they are earning 2K. And of all times, it is increased now in the midst of so much uncertainties.

And I wonder what happened to demonising the Thais and Singaporeans as terrible foreigners who took advantage of our subsidied fuel? The way it is potrayed by the media is as though they contribute nothing to our local economy. Isn't it silly considering that our border economy has been shaped with these people patronising our local economy?

I am terribly confused at times. We seemed to be blaming everyone outside the country but our own. We blame the global economy and said it cannot be helped that the fuel prices are high. We blame the Singaporeans and Thais for buying our petrol and use our subsidies. But what about the IPPs that produce subsidised electricity for manufacturers that export our products cheap globally? Aren't we subsidising the rest of the world? So why pass the buck only to the rakyat? Shouldn't we at least pass some of these cost back to the rest of the world?

Or are we helpless inflation-dumping ground for the rest of the world?

Will this be the tipping point that will ultimately unravel the present rule?

I shudder to wonder what else is install for us...