KUALA LUMPUR — Disbursing the targeted RON95 subsidy by using vehicle registrations is not feasible as 40% of people in the B60 income group do not register their vehicles, said Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.
He told the Dewan Rakyat there are also cases where people register their vehicles under other another person’s name.
“Another instance is one family may share a motorcycle under a single registration name,” Rafizi (Pandan-PH) said during question time today.
He was replying a supplementary question by Suhaizan Kaiat (Pulai-PH) who asked the minister about charging vehicle owners a petrol levy when they renew road tax, as a targeted subsidy method.
A similar proposal was recently mooted by Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong (Ayer Hitam-BN) who suggested that the government identify the T15 group and impose a petrol levy of RM2,600 a year when they renew their road tax.
Responding to the Amanah lawmaker, Rafizi revealed that 40% of families from the B60 income strata do not register their vehicle ownership with the road transport department (JPJ).
The government runs the risk of subsidy leakages should it adopt the petrol levy method, he added.
On cash transfers, Rafizi acknowledged that there are other countries using this method while floating fuel prices.
For Malaysia, however, the government feared that such a method would cause a hike in the prices of goods, he said.
“It is actually the other way around where other countries can learn from us on how we transition (to targeted subsidy mechanisms),” Rafizi said when asked by Abdul Latiff Abdul Rahman (Kuala Krai-PN) if there were methods used by other countries that Malaysia could learn from.
The economy minister said that there was no other country had implemented targeted fuel subsidies the way Malaysia intended to.
He also told the Dewan Rakyat today that a pilot project using MyKad and e-wallets for subsidised fuel purchase had been conducted between 2022 and 2023 at selected petrol stations.
“I would like to say that there is no flawless method and any method comes with its risks in terms of operational problems, fraud risks and cost risks.
“We are aware that there are risks that come with the two-tier pricing system for petrol but it is something that can be improved over time,’’ Rafizi said. – November 12, 2024
