KUCHING, Oct 7: Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan will continue to enjoy the subsidised RON95 petrol after the new targeted petrol subsidy scheme is implemented in January 2020.
Since the new subsidy scheme is to be implemented only in the Peninsula, Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Chong Chieng Jen explained that the RON95 petrol will be capped at RM2.08 per litre across the board in Sarawak as well as Sabah and Labuan.
“This targeted petrol subsidy system will only be applicable in West Malaysia. For Sarawak, Sabah and Labuan, we will still enjoy the capping of RM2.08 per litre for RON95, i.e general subsidy across the board for all Sarawakians,” he said in a press statement today.
“As such, the monthly subsidy will not be implemented for Sarawak and Sabah as there will not be any RON95 price increase,” he added.
Chong, who is also Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak chairman, pointed out that the special consideration and preferential treatment was given to Sabah and Sarawak because of the special position of the two Borneon states in the federation.
He said the total subsidy amount under the current general subsidy scheme was much more than the subsidy amount under the new targeted subsidy scheme.
However, he added that Sarawak and Sabah would still benefit from maintaining the existing general subsidy scheme.
“The targeted subsidy scheme is introduced because it will have a huge savings for the government in terms of subsidy borne by the government,” he highlighted.
“The federal government has to introduce this targeted subsidy scheme to replace the current general subsidy scheme, because of the dire state of the financial position caused by the previous government’s corruption and misappropriation of funds,” he elaborated.
“As it is now, according to the floating price, RON95 petrol will be RM2.49 per litre,” he added.
To compensate the hardship resulting from the implementation of the new subsidy scheme, Chong emphasised that the B40 (lower income) group or those under Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) would be given monthly subsidy of RM30 for one car per owner and RM12 for one motorbike per owner.
A total of 2.8 million people will benefit from the subsidy scheme, which will cost the federal government about RM65.4million a month.— DayakDaily
