Perikatan Nasional has described the proposal for a more targeted subsidy programme, particularly the rationalisation of RON95 fuel subsidies for the T20 income group, as unfair.<\/p>\n
Its deputy chairman, Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, said the government must clearly define what constitutes the “rich” category before implementing any policy changes.<\/p>\n
“The proposal will be unfair and will burden the T20 group, many of whom are taxpayers contributing significantly to national revenue.<\/p>\n
“The T20 should not automatically be labelled as the rich. The government must clearly explain the definition of the wealthy group because the term is different from the T20 classification, which is generally based on household income,” said the Kubang Kerian member of parliament.<\/p>\n
Tuan Ibrahim, who is also Pas deputy president, said the proposal reflected the government’s failure to fulfil its earlier promises on easing the people’s cost of living burden.<\/p>\n
I see this as a sign of the government’s failure in delivering on its promises.<\/p>\n
“The rising cost of living, fragile and unstable incomes, as well as economic structural changes beyond the people’s control, are among the main issues that must be carefully studied before any decision is made,” he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Pas vice-president Datuk Idris Ahmad said the definition of the T20 category itself was too broad and did not necessarily reflect an individual’s actual financial situation.<\/p>\n
“Gross household income does not necessarily reflect the real living conditions of a person.<\/p>\n
“There are families categorised as T20 but living in major cities with high living costs, supporting elderly parents, raising many children, servicing education loans and handling other commitments.<\/p>\n
“When subsidies are withdrawn across the board, it could punish groups that are not truly wealthy,” said the Bagan Serai MP.<\/p>\n
Idris also claimed the government appeared more inclined to cut subsidies than address leakages, wastage and inefficiencies in administration.<\/p>\n
“The people will ask why subsidies are being targeted at the people first while issues involving project leakages, high management costs and wastage have yet to be comprehensively resolved.<\/p>\n
“If subsidies are removed while wastage continues, the people will see the policy as merely shifting the burden of the government’s management weaknesses onto the rakyat,” he said.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had said the proposal to rationalise RON95 fuel subsidies for the T20 group was still being refined and expected to be finalised soon.<\/p>\n
He had said the proposal was being reviewed by the National Economic Action Council’s Crisis Management Task Force, including discussions on whether the subsidy rationalisation should involve the T5, T10, T15 or T20 groups.<\/p>\n
Economy Minister Akmal Nasrullah Mohd Nasir said earlier today that the rationalisation of the RON95 subsidy will ensure that consumption, among other factors, is taken into consideration rather than relying solely on household income.<\/p>\n
He said the rollout is expected to coincide with the beginning of a calendar month to ensure the technical screening system is fully prepared.NST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Perikatan Nasional has described the proposal for a more targeted subsidy programme, particularly the rationalisation of RON95 fuel subsidies for the T20 income group, as unfair. Its deputy chairman, Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, said the government must clearly define what constitutes the “rich” category before implementing any policy changes. “The proposal will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77594,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":{"id":77594,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":881,"height":499,"file":"2019\/07\/datuk-tuan.jpg","filesize":100608,"sizes":{},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1562933526","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":77589,"source_url":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/datuk-tuan.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106400"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106401,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106400\/revisions\/106401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}