KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 — The price of RON97 petrol will rise to RM2.66 per litre this week and be set using the existing weekly float hereafter, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said today.

Lim confirmed the federal government’s decision to maintain the retail price for RON95 petrol and diesel at RM2.20 per litre and RM2.18 per litre, respectively, instead of using the weekly pricing system.

Lim said this would require the government to pay a subsidy of 33 sen per litre for all retail purchases of these two fuel types for this week.

“Without the subsidy, the price of RON95 and diesel would rise to RM2.53 and RM2.51 per litre respectively. Global crude oil prices have reached US$76 per barrel, while refined petrol and diesel products are currently priced between US$87 and US$88 per barrel,” he said in a statement today.

He said the federal government has allocated RM3 billion until the end of 2018 to finance the subsidy and to maintain the retail prices for the RON95 petrol and diesel for the rest of this year.

“Meanwhile, the RON97 price will be floated on a weekly basis. The government has priced it at RM2.66 per litre from today until 13 June 2018,” he said.

This will be the first week that the RON97 petrol retail price is being floated again. It was previously priced RM2.44 per litre.

In the weeks leading up to the 14th general elections (since the week of March 22-March 28) and even after that, the federal government had maintained the retail price for RON 95 petrol, RON97 petrol and diesel.