Government looking into barring use of foreign credit cards at petrol stations to prevent Budi95 leakages

According to a report by The Star, a study is being carried out on barring the use of overseas-registered credit cards at outdoor payment terminals in petrol stations. Domestic trade and cost of living minister Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali said this is one of the additional steps being considered to prevent leakages under the Budi Madani RON 95 (Budi95) programme.

“We are seeing if this mechanism can be expanded. At the same time, monitoring and operations by plainclothes ministry officials will be carried out at known hotspots,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Armizan added that the ministry took a serious view of threats allegedly issued to petrol station operators over the sale of RON 95. “Such actions are criminal offences and those affected can lodge police reports. Currently, the regulations lean heavily towards licence holders or petrol station operators (who sell to foreigners),” he explained.

Last month, the ministry of domestic trade and cost of living (KPDN) revealed new regulations are being drafted to enable action to be taken against owners of foreign-registered vehicles that purchase RON 95 petrol. This will be enforced from April 1 this year and comes after calls to hold perpetrators accountable instead of the liability solely being borne by petrol station operators.