Country's subsidies expected to surpass RM81 billion this year - PM

KOTA KINABALU: The subsidies given by the government to the people throughout the country including electricity, fuel and food is expected to exceed RM81 billion this year, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

He said even though the figure is seen as high, reducing the total subsidy without looking at the needs of the people is not a choice to the government to ensure the people are not burdened especially by the current cost of living.

Therefore, he said the rationalisation of subsidies being implemented by the government is important in ensuring the people are assisted while the country's economy remains strong.

"Subsidy is an intervention by the government to ease the people's burden. Subsidies for chicken and eggs amounted to RM3.8 billion but reducing the subsidies would not an option as it will raise the cost of living to the people, therefore a more resilient policy is needed to reduce (subsidies) which is the rationalisation of subsidies.

"With such a (high) amount of subsidies, no country can survive, some will lessened," he said while launching the Islamic Affairs Management Convention in conjunction with the 2023 Ijtimak Perdana Agensi Agama Seluruh Malaysia (IJPAM) at the Sabah Intrnational Convention Centre here last night.

Anwar said many people repeated his statement in 2008 saying 'today we win, tomorrow the price of oil goes down' which he explained that year the price of oil in this country was higher than oil producing countries like Saudi Arabia.

"Now the cost has increased many times, the price of oil in Saudi Arabia is higher than Malaysia, Brunei is a bit little lower. We will help the people with this subsidy (oil). We are explaining this today especially to the people as we are sincere and responsible and there is no need to politicise this issue," he said.

Meanwhile, he said the government's move to provide a subsidy of RM950 per tonne of imported white rice (BPI) to Sabah and Sarawak is important to help the people, especially the poor in the state.

"We will not allow the poor people of Sabah to be burdened by the soaring price of rice. There are places where the price of rice is RM45, RM41, RM39 (a 10-kilogramme pack), so with this subsidy we can lower the price to RM31 and reduce the burden and pressure on the people," he said.

He said that for the interior of Sabah and Sarawak, a mechanism to ensure that the price of rice does not increase due to transport costs will be discussed to help the people in those areas.

In the meantime, Anwar thanked the 12 elected representatives and leaders of Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sabah who have withdrawn their suit against the federal government over the implementation of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63).

"Since we took over the government, the Chief Minister (Hajiji) is well aware that I have directed all our efforts to implement what we promised. I assure you, close relations and cooperation with my friend Datuk Seri Hajiji we will continue to improve efforts and listen to what other steps stated," he said.

-- BERNAMA