Malaysia used to have one RON95 price. On 30 September 2025 the BUDI95 targeted-subsidy scheme split it. Eligible Malaysian citizens were given RON95 at RM1.99 a litre, applied at the pump through their own eligibility. Everyone outside the subsidy, such as non-citizens driving Malaysian-registered cars and company-owned vehicles, was moved onto an unsubsidised price that is reset every week. We pulled the Ministry of Finance's own weekly fuel-price series from data.gov.my and counted every week from launch to 17 September 2026, the latest available. The subsidised price has not moved once. The unsubsidised price has climbed to RM4.37, the highest RON95 retail figure the series has recorded since it began in 2017. Here are six facts from every weekly price since BUDI95 launched, each measured over the same window, 30 September 2025 to 17 September 2026.
Contents
- 1. The RON95 subsidy is now worth RM2.38 a litre. At launch it was worth 61 sen.
- 2. Eligible Malaysians have paid RM1.99 for RON95 in every weekly update since launch.
- 3. The unsubsidised price rose from RM2.60 to RM4.37, up 68 per cent.
- 4. Fill the current 300-litre monthly cap and the two prices are RM597 versus RM1,311.
- 5. There is a third RON95 price too: RM2.05, for eligible transport operators.
- 6. Unsubsidised diesel rose the most of all: RM2.93 to RM5.27, up 80 per cent.
- The numbers, in full
- The limits
- How to check this yourself
1. The RON95 subsidy is now worth RM2.38 a litre. At launch it was worth 61 sen.
At launch the unsubsidised price was RM2.60 and the subsidised price RM1.99, a gap of 61 sen. On 17 September 2026 the unsubsidised price is RM4.37 against the same RM1.99, a gap of RM2.38. The value of the subsidy to an eligible Malaysian at the pump has grown almost four times across the window, while the price they actually pay never changed.
2. Eligible Malaysians have paid RM1.99 for RON95 in every weekly update since launch.
The Ministry of Finance re-issues fuel prices weekly. In every weekly update from 30 September 2025 to 17 September 2026, the BUDI95 rate has read RM1.99, without a single change. The volume you may buy at that price did move: the monthly cap was 300 litres at launch, cut to 200 litres from 1 April 2026, then restored to 300 litres from 1 September 2026. The price stayed RM1.99 throughout.
3. The unsubsidised price rose from RM2.60 to RM4.37, up 68 per cent.
The unsubsidised RON95 price is reset each week under the government's Automatic Pricing Mechanism. Over the window it rose from RM2.60 to RM4.37, up 68 per cent, and RM4.37 is the highest RON95 retail figure in the data.gov.my weekly series since it began in 2017. That earlier record was set when RON95 was a single capped price for everyone, most recently RM2.05, so read it as the highest the price itself has reached, not as one tier tracked throughout.
4. Fill the current 300-litre monthly cap and the two prices are RM597 versus RM1,311.
At today's RM1.99 rate, a full 300 litres costs an eligible Malaysian RM597. At the RM4.37 unsubsidised price the same 300 litres costs RM1,311, a difference of RM714 a month for the same grade of petrol. At launch, when the cap was also 300 litres, the same comparison was RM597 against RM780, a difference of RM183. For five calendar months in between, from 1 April to 31 August 2026, the cap was 200 litres.
5. There is a third RON95 price too: RM2.05, for eligible transport operators.
Alongside the RM1.99 consumer rate and the floating unsubsidised rate, the Ministry of Finance holds a separate subsidised RON95 price of RM2.05 for eligible vehicles in the public land transport and land freight sectors, such as buses, taxis and lorries registered under the scheme. It has also stayed at RM2.05 in every weekly update over the window. So RON95 in Malaysia today is not two prices, it is three.
6. Unsubsidised diesel rose the most of all: RM2.93 to RM5.27, up 80 per cent.
Unsubsidised diesel in Peninsular Malaysia climbed from RM2.93 to RM5.27, up 80 per cent, a sharper rise than the unsubsidised RON95 over the same window. Diesel keeps its own separate subsidised tiers for eligible groups and for East Malaysia, so this figure is the Peninsular unsubsidised pump price, not what a qualifying user pays. It moved while the RM1.99 RON95 rate for eligible Malaysians did not.
The numbers, in full
| RON95 tier (RM per litre) | 30 Sep 2025 | 17 Sep 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| BUDI95, eligible Malaysians | 1.99 | 1.99 | 0.00 |
| Public transport and freight | 2.05 | 2.05 | 0.00 |
| Unsubsidised (those outside the subsidy) | 2.60 | 4.37 | +1.77 (+68%) |
| Gap, unsubsidised minus BUDI95 | 0.61 | 2.38 | x3.9 |
| For comparison (RM per litre) | 30 Sep 2025 | 17 Sep 2026 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diesel (Peninsular, unsubsidised) | 2.93 | 5.27 | +2.34 (+80%) |
The limits
The RM4.37 unsubsidised price applies to road users outside the subsidy, such as non-citizens driving Malaysian-registered cars and company-owned vehicles, not to eligible Malaysian citizens, who continue to pay RM1.99, nor to eligible transport operators on the RM2.05 tier. Foreign-registered vehicles are a separate case: the standing ban on selling them RON95 remains in force, so they are not on this tier at all. The monthly volume you may buy at RM1.99 was 300 litres at launch, 200 litres from 1 April 2026, and 300 litres again from 1 September 2026, but the price never changed. All three RON95 figures, and the diesel figure, are official Ministry of Finance retail prices, reset weekly through the Automatic Pricing Mechanism; the diesel figure is the Peninsular Malaysia unsubsidised price. Beyond non-citizens and company vehicles, the unsubsidised rate also applies to any purchase an eligible person makes above their monthly quota. The all-time-high point compares the current unsubsidised tier against an earlier era when RON95 was one capped price, so read it as the highest figure the price has reached, not one tier tracked throughout. This is a price record, not a spending record: it does not tell us how much of each grade Malaysians actually bought.
How to check this yourself
The full series is public. Open the fuel-price dataset at data.gov.my, take the weekly "level" values, and read the RON95 subsidised (BUDI95), public-transport and unsubsidised columns from 30 September 2025 to 17 September 2026. The subsidised column reads RM1.99 in every row; the unsubsidised column ends at RM4.37, which is also the highest value the RON95 column reaches anywhere in the file. The source is the Ministry of Finance, and this is our own count of that file.
