In case any of you have driven into Malaysia on or after the 1st of August 2010 and intend on filling up your fuel tank with Malaysian petrol you would have found out that there is a new directive stating that beginning 1st August 2010, all non-Malaysian registered vehicles will not be able to pump petrol with RON95 grade within Malaysia. Enforcement officers are supposedly on patrol around border towns, especially in Johore Bahru and at Bukit Kayu Hitam at the Thai-Malaysia border.

The reason for this action is that RON95 is highly subsidized by the Malaysian government and because of this, the price of RON95 is only RM1.85 per liter. It was slightly cheaper before 15th July 2010 but has since had a 5sen increase due to increasing petrol costs. All foreign registered cars can however pump as much RON97 as this is now on a controlled float pricing instead of being subsidized.

Basically RON95 is for Malaysians due to the subsidized price and due to this subsidy, a lot of motorists from Thailand and some from Singapore take advantage of the cheap fuel. But the main culprits who take advantage of the cheap fuel are those at the Thai border where there is no restriction on how much petrol a Thai registered car has to have before leaving Thailand. This is unlike Singapore where Singapore registered vehicles must have at least