UNLIKE BN, PR would have cut fuel prices - Rafizi slams Najib for putting CRONIES FIRST

VIDEOS INSERTED KUALA LUMPUR - PKR leaders slammed Prime Minister Najib Razak for burdening the ordinary folk with the latest hike in petrol and diesel prices, urging him to instead look at reducing the subsidies granted to the corporate sector, especially the string of elite 'fat cat' independent power producers.

At a press conference held on Tuesday, MP for Pandan Rafizi Ramli warned of a fast down-spiraling economy, pointing to the recent downgrade by Fitch.

According to Rafizi, this was the first time that an international ratings agency had reduced Malaysia to a "negative" outlook due to the government's lack of a comprehensive plan to correct the country's economic imbalances wrought by decades of excessive spending and pump-priming.

Pakatan would have rolled out plan to cut fuel prices

When asked if the Opposition had won the May 5 general election, would it still have been able to reduce fuel prices as promised in its manifesto, Rafizi was confident that the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim would have been able to do so.

"What Najib has done is just cut the subsidy for the poor, he doesn't touch the IPPs or the corporates whereas we proposed a real allocation from the corporate - I mentioned RM13 bil just now - so if you take RM3.3 or 4 billion, that will have the immediate impact of increasing the disposal income of the public and this actually goes back into the economy because our economy these days is becoming more dependent on domestic demand," said Rafizi.

"If you look at the total fuel subsidy per year, it is about RM24.8 bil. It has 2 components, one which is about 60% of the total comprising of petrol and diesel subsidies going back to the public which is about RM14bil. The other RM10bil goes to the corporate, which is in the form of cheap gas, cheap LPG, electricity and so many other things. On top of that, there is another RM8bil of opportunity lost because gas is sold cheaply to IPPs so there is an opportunity to restructure approximately about RM13bil worth of subsidies going to corporate sector every year. What we would have done is restructure the RM13bil and re-channel this to the public and while we have breathing space to lower the fuel price, we would simultaneously roll out other reforms."

Same old crony capitalism

Rafizi minced no words when asked why did not the Najib administration use other measures to reduce the record-high budget deficit as well the ballooning national debt.

"Najib only looks at one thing, he doesn't want to go through the very onerous and difficult task of sitting down with individuals, twisting the arms of the IPPs, perhaps look at some other taxation measures, he's not willing to do that," said Rafizi.

"There is this crony capitalism, the nexus of politicians and vested interests so that's why there has not been a single announcement from his administration and past administrations that has alluded to a concrete commitment to reform gas and corporate subsidies - never. Every time, we talk about subsidies it is always the public subsidies."

Malaysia Chronicle