KUALA LUMPUR: THE government is doing its best to help middle-income earners cope with the rising cost of living, with more measures expected to be introduced in the future.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said among the plans to be implemented next year was increasing the target groups for beneficiaries of the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) to include those earning more than RM4,000.
Muhyiddin, in commending Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak for presenting a comprehensive Budget that covered a wider economic spectrum, said the latter wanted the country’s economic perks to be shared equally among people in all income groups and had assured that middle-income earners would not be sidelined.
“The middle-income group is not forgotten. The prime minister is concerned about the problems faced by the people and he will not spare quarters to meet the country’s economic objective (to be a high-income nation),” Muhyiddin said at Parliament after the tabling of the 2015 Budget by Najib yesterday.
In the past few years, the middle-income group — those who earn between RM4,000 and RM6,000 — has been said to be the most affected by the rising cost of living, supposedly in the absence of special allocations usually accorded to low-income earners.
Muhyiddin said the government was studying the average net income of middle-income earners to ease the burden they bore due to the high cost of living.
“It is a matter that the government will continue to focus on. For example, this (assuaging the effects of the high cost of living) can be done by monitoring the prices of goods and ensuring an adequate (food) supply domestically. Indirectly, price control can help those in the middle-income group.”
He said the reduction in income tax of between one and three per cent — a measure that would affect 300,000 individuals with family and an income of RM4,000 a month — would help.
“This will alleviate their financial burden, stemming from the current cost of living.”
On the amount allotted for the education sector, Muhyiddin, who is also education minister, said the addition of RM2.3 billion to last year’s RM52.8 billion allocation would be used for the maintenance of schools nationwide.
He was pleased that the annual RM100 aid for students, given at the beginning of each school year, remained.
“Although several quarters have said the aid should not be given to high-income families, the prime minister contended that when it comes to education, any aid should be given across the board.”