Ketika era pentadbiran Dr Mahathir, pengeluaran minyak negara melangkaui keperluan penggunaan tempatan.
Disebalik memperoleh dana yang mudah dari lebihan pengeluaran minyak selama 22 tahun sebagai Perdana Menteri, Dr Mahathir tetap mengenakan cukai 58 sen bagi setiap liter petrol dan bukan minyak lebih murah.
Penggunaan minyak menjadi lebih tinggi juga disebabkan ketaksuban Dr Mahathir menjual lebih banyak kereta berbanding memberi perhatian kepada pengangkutan awam.
Dan Dr Mahathir turut kerap menjarah dana Petronas bagi membina pelbagai projek mewah atau menyelamatkan syarikat kroni atau anaknya.
Di bawah pentadbiran Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak, pilihan seumpama ini tidak lagi wujud ekoran harga minyak yang semakin tinggi serta penggunaan minyak tempatan yang sangat tinggi.
Bagaimanapun, Najib tidak menjarah dana Petronas seperti Mahathir, di mana syarikat petroleum negara kini memiliki RM128.2 bilion tunai pada penghujung 2017 berbanding hanya RM20 bilion atau RM30 bilion ketika era pentadbiran Mahathir.
Petronas juga berjaya mengumpul tunai lebih pantas kerana Najib berjaya menyelesaikan perjanjian berat sebelah IPP yang ditinggalkan Mahathir pada 2012 dengan bantuan 1MDB di mana Petronas tidak lagi perlu menyalurkan subsidi secara paksaan berjumlah berpuluh billion Ringgit kepada IPP ciptaan Mahathir.
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During Mahathir's time, Malaysia's oil production vastly exceeds our domestic oil consumption.
Despite getting the easy money from exports of surplus oil production in his entire 22 years in office, Mahathir decided to tax Malaysians 58sen per liter for petrol instead of giving us cheaper petrol.
The fact that oil consumption in Malaysia became much higher is also because of Mahathir's obsession with selling more cars instead of focusing on public transportation.
Then Mahathir will raid Petronas funds ever so often to build this or that or to bail out this or that crony/son.
Under PM Najib, this option of easy tax money on petrol is no longer available as not only has global oil prices been much higher but our domestic consumption is also vastly higher.
However, Najib doesn't raid Petronas funds like Mahathir - which is why Petronas now has RM128.2 billion cash as at end 2017 instead of the RM20 billion or RM30 billion during Mahathir;s time.
Petronas also got to accumulate cash much faster as Najib had solved the lop-sided IPP agreements legacy problem in the year 2012 along with 1MDB"s help which means Petronas no longer needs to give tens of billions in forced subsidies to the IPPs now.
LSS.
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