ALOR STAR: Kedah Consumer Association (Cake) has lauded the national Central Database System (Padu) initiative which aims to ensure targeted distribution of government subsidies to eligible citizens.
Its president Mohamad Yusrizal Yusoff said it was the right move to plug leakages of subsidies, that were causing billions of ringgit losses annually to the government.
"If we look at the current bulk subsidies distribution, subsidies are also enjoyed by high income earners and foreigners, for example our subsidised cooking oil.
"Thus, by having Padu, the government will be able to channel subsidies to eligible citizens without massive leakages.
"More importantly, the government will be able to properly identify those who are eligible for subsidies because there are people who have fallen into the middle-income or even the low-income groups following the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic," he told the New Straits Times when contacted.
Yusrizal also urged the government to ensure that the Padu registration truly covers people in the rural and remote areas so that they would not be left out from the database.
"We are informed that the registration can be done via online or manually at the respective district offices. The challenge is to ensure that people living in remote areas will not be left out. Same goes to illiterate people who are not capable of filing up the forms on their own," he said.
Another important aspect he said, is to ensure that the system is capable of managing high traffic volume and is secure.
"The Padu database must be properly safeguarded from any data leakage threat. This is very important to protect the public's confidence in sharing their personal data," he said.
Yusrizal also pointed out on the importance of the system being flexible, so that the people could make amendments and update their data from time to time.
"The system has to be flexible because not all Malaysians are fixed income earners. We have petty traders and entrepreneurs whose incomes fluctuate. In fact, fixed income earners are exposed to the risk of losing their jobs.
"Hence, the system has to be flexible so that the public are able to update their status from time to time," he said.
Yusrizal added that Padu should be the catalyst for the government to formulate a better mechanism for subsidies and various forms of aid distribution to the people.
The first thing was to do away with the M40 and B40 classifications to deliver social justice to the people.
"Cake is hopeful that under the next phase, the government will make full use of Padu database to channel subsidies and aid based on needs instead of just general classification.
"It has to be based on the locality of a person or family, the number of family members, cost of living and so on," he said.
Yusrizal said for instance, based on the findings by the Department of Statistics early last year, those with RM6,000 monthly income in the Klang Valley should not be automatically considered as having a comfortable life as compared to those earning the same amount in other states or localities.
"As such, we hope Padu will truly lead towards guiding the government to deliver true social justice to the people based on the localities and other key factors and not simply based on income level alone," he said.