SANDAKAN: A key link in Sabah's multibillion-ringgit palm oil industry has been left out of the targeted diesel subsidy scheme, with tipper lorry operators saying they do not qualify for it despite being essential to transporting fresh fruit bunches (FFB) from plantations to mills and also from mills to refineries.
Lorry driver Muhammad Saddam Suding, 36, said operators like him stopped work on Wednesday (July 1) to protest their exclusion from the targeted subsidy mechanism.
"We don't know what is going to happen to the FFB now. Maybe they will be left there to rot because all of us stopped working today," he said during a protest outside the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry office here.
Saddam said operators had repeatedly tried to apply for fleet cards and other forms of diesel subsidy assistance but were told by the ministry office that they were not among the categories eligible for the Subsidised Diesel Control System (SKDS).
He said tipper lorry operators were excluded even though prime movers and crude palm oil (CPO) tankers remained eligible.
"How are they supposed to transport CPO if we don't first transport the oil palm fruit to the mills?" he asked.
He said higher diesel costs would make it difficult for operators to cover operating expenses such as tyres, maintenance and others.
"If diesel prices double, our income cannot cover our costs anymore. Our profits will all go towards paying for diesel," he said.
His colleague Jamil Nasir said tipper lorry operators felt as though they had been left in limbo.
"We are in the middle. We are not eligible as private diesel vehicle owners. We don't get any subsidy at all," he said, adding that there are more than 100 tipper lorry drivers in Sandakan alone.
The two were among about 30 people who joined six assemblymen in a peaceful protest outside the ministry office on the day the Budi Diesel programme came into effect in Sabah and Sarawak.
Carrying placards opposing the policy, they said Sabah's long travel distances, remote settlements and dependence on diesel for transportation and electricity generation made the implementation unsuitable for the state.
Among them was boat operator Ahmad Sidik, 61, from Sukau in Kinabatangan, who said his passenger transport service had been unable to operate for the past six months owing to difficulties in obtaining sufficient diesel.
"How can a 400HP engine run on just 20 litres of diesel? It cannot. My boat service transports schoolchildren, residents and tourists, but now everything has come to a halt," he said.
Another protester, Mohammad Rosli, said the diesel quota was insufficient for Sabahans who travelled long distances daily, including teachers and civil servants posted outside their hometowns.
"Road journeys in Sabah are very long. There are teachers and civil servants who commute between districts every day; even for those who only return on the weekend, 200 litres is simply not enough," he said.
The protesters said they hoped the Federal Government would reconsider implementing Budi Diesel in Sabah and exempt the state from the targeted subsidy mechanism, citing Sabah's unique geographical and economic realities compared with Peninsular Malaysia.
