Finance Minister: There are still enough funds to continue fuel subsidy

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz has revealed that the government still has sufficient funds to continue to provide Malaysians with fuel subsidies despite the rising global crude oil prices.

In a Bernama report, Tengku Zafrul was adamant that the government will continue to support the people in terms of protecting their livelihoods, especially that of the vulnerable groups.

He states that Malaysia’s inflation target for this year (2022) is still within what has been forecasted, between 2.3 percent and 3.3 percent.

However, the government will continue to monitor global oil prices to see the long-term plan where one of the measures is to implement a targeted subsidy.

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Tengku Zafrul confirms that the number of subsidies for this year will reach RM 70 billion, meaning that the fuel subsidy will reach RM 30 billion. In May, the fuel subsidy already reached RM 5 billion a month.

He explains that the government’s revenue has also increased although it is not as high as the increase in subsidies. Hence the government still has sufficient money to continue allocating for the subsidy.

Meanwhile, he states that the government has no intention of asking for an additional dividend from Petronas to bear the subsidy at the moment.

For now, the government revenue is increasing as it also depends on commodity prices. Though Petronas has also announced a strong financial position, the government has yet to discuss whether they will ask for more dividends from Petronas.

Also read: Say goodbye to blanket petrol subsidies soon, government putting forward targeted assistance