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The Malaysian Insider KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 — Some are businessmen. Some are triad members. Some are politicians. But they have a few similarities: they are politically-connected or enjoy the patronage of law enforcement agencies in their state or districts and they head some of the biggest diesel smuggling syndicates in Malaysia.
On average, each of them earns up to RM50 million a year from diverting heavily subsidised diesel from petrol stations or fishermen to factories and construction sites in Malaysia or to waiting barges and fishing boats headed for Thailand and Philippines. Over the past two years, the government has been paying between RM20 and RM30 billion in subsidies so that certain categories of Malaysians can enjoy lower prices at the pump. But in reality much of the consignment of the subsidised diesel has not reached their target market. In short, billions of ringgit in subsidies in being wasted on Malaysia’s neighbours. The Malaysian Insider understands that the Customs and other enforcement agencies have identified some of these big diesel smugglers. They know that they are based near fishing areas, sea ports and border areas like Pantai Remis, Malacca, Kuala Selangor, Prai and Bukit Kayu Hitam. A couple of the big operators are in East Malaysia. The use of nanotechnology has even given the authorities the ability to pick out consignments of diesel being smuggled. Still, the big players have been untouched by any enforcement action. The authorities have not acted against the syndicates for several reasons. Some of the syndicate bosses have political patronage and have not been afraid to show off their connections while others work "closely" with enforcement agencies officials in their areas. They have been known to offer RM8,000 per tanker to officials at the checkpoints to Thailand. Also, all of them have fierce reputations and are known to have bodyguards or own firearms. So enforcement officials are wary of tangling with them. The Insider has learnt that the use of nano markers has enabled the government to prevent about RM1 billion in subsidised diesel from being smuggled out of the country or diverted to consumers not entitled to get the subsidies. But this figure can easily hit RM5-RM10 billion if Customs, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs and police officials crack down on the big syndicate bosses. Typically, the syndicates buy subsidised diesel from fisherman at RM1.50 per litre, 50 sen more than what the fisherman pays the government. They sell the smuggled diesel at RM2.30 per litre, 40 sen lower than the current market price of diesel. After taking into account transport and other expenses, they make a profit of about 60 sen per litre. Interestingly, the diesel purchased by fishermen has almost tripled in the last three years from 320 million litres to 1.2b litres but without a corresponding increase in the fish haul. This suggests that many of the fishermen are selling their consignment of subsidised diesel to syndicates. In view of the food security crisis affecting Malaysia, the trend of fishermen not going out to sea is an alarming one.
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So each special commission is above the law ooops the ministry! So what left in the ministry? 
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