Pua: KR1M subsidy more than national sugar subsidy

Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua today said despite the government’s defence that a large part of the RM386 million allocated for 57 new Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia (KR1M) outlets in Sabah and Sarawak was aimed at standardising prices of good with peninsula Malaysia, it was still more than the national sugar subsidy.

Furthermore, he said even though it had been clarified that RM299 million would be for subsidy, the remaining RM87 million to set up the 57 outlets still worked out to a whopping RM1.53 million each compared to the cost RM471,000 each for peninsula outlets in the last budget.

“The balance of the RM299 million meant for the ‘cost of delivery and distribution’ is essentially a subsidy on the goods to be sold in KR1M. For the 57 outlets, that works out to a whopping RM5.25 million of subsidies for each store.

“In fact, the RM299 million of subsidy to Mydin exceeds the RM278 million sugar subsidy budgeted for the entire country in 2013,” he told a press conference at the Parliament lobby this morning.

[More to follow]