Fuel subsidies still in effect, Irwan Serigar reveals

Although fuel subsidies were supposed to have been abolished as part of the government’s subsidy rationalisation plan in 2014, Treasury Secretary-General Irwan Serigar revealed that subsidies are still ongoing.

This is to keep price increases in check as the weekly fuel prices are being adjusted, he said, although the amount subsidised is not as much as the pre-2014 subsidies.

“Although we have the fuel price mechanism, there is still having some subsidy in there. The government still subsidises.

“Sometimes we don’t want to burden the rakyat too much, so we subside for certain periods when it goes up, we subsidise a bit. I think we still (subsidise) a few hundred million per month,” he said when fielding questions at a post-budget dialogue organised by the Malaysian Economic Association in Kuala Lumpur today.

In comparison, Irwan said the government had spent about RM22 billion annually on fuel subsidies prior to the subsidy rationalisation plan.

When asked to elaborate on the fuel subsidies after the event, however, he declined and told reporters that he had already said enough about the subsidy.

Meanwhile, on another matter, Irwan said it is unfair to compare the size of Malaysia’s civil service to those of other countries, which is often criticised as being bloated.

He said the civil service figures provided by some countries do not include its teachers, medical personnel, and military personnel.

If these government employees are not counted, Irwan said Malaysia would only have 670,000 civil servants rather then that often-quoted figure of 1.6 million.

“So you must compare apples to apples. When they say that, ‘In our country, our civil service is very small compared to your country’, did you take account of your police, you military and so on?

“Whereas in Malaysia, the 1.6 million includes all these categories,” he said.

Irwan also claimed that his speech on Sept 28 claiming that there should not be any poor Malaysians had been ‘manipulated’.

“I didn’t say that they (Malaysians) are lazy. I’ve just said that Malaysians – if you have two hands, two legs, there shouldn’t be any poverty. They can find a job.

“There are 4.5 million foreigners in this country. Registered about two (million), another two (million) unregistered. I didn’t say Malaysians are lazy; I didn’t say Malaysians are poor.

“I said if you have two hands, two legs, if you are willing to work, then we are not poor. You can find jobs. But people just manipulated my speech and started criticising me.

“So, I must be careful what I say. Even when I say correct things, they say different things,” he lamented.- Mkini