PUTRAJAYA: The government will announce the mechanism involved in targeted fuel subsidies for RON95 in two weeks’ time.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said all would be revealed in a press conference, pending cabinet approval of the finer details of the subsidy.
“Everything, including the implementation mechanism, will be revealed during the press conference which is expected to be held in less than two weeks, if everything goes according to schedule,” he told reporters after the ministry's monthly assembly.
The subsidy was initially supposed to be implemented in June, but the ministry postponed it to fine tune and come up with a workable plan that will ensure only those are eligible receive the subsidy.
The targeted RON95 petrol subsidy is a measure outlined under the 2019 Budget to reduce the cost of living for the B40 group, defined as households earning less than RM3,860 per month.
The subsidy for car owners will be limited to 100 litres of petrol monthly, while motorcycle owners will get 40 litres monthly.
Some RM2 billion has been allocated for the new initiative, which is expected to benefit more than four million car owners and 2.6 million motorcycle owners.
Separately, Saifuddin also said the ministry is looking at two models to reduce the high cost of living.
“We will be sending ministry officials to Taiwan and Turkey soon to learn how these two nations manage the high cost of living,” he added.
Taiwan, he said, is a nation which is often hit by natural disasters like typhoons but rarely faces shortages in food supply.
“Despite facing natural disasters, we rarely hear that food supply in the country is affected or (that there are) price hikes of goods. This is something we should look at.
“For Turkey, we want to look at the aspect of government intervention in educating traders and businesses despite the people having to face price hikes of food items,” he said.