Targeted fuel subsidies will be rolled out in stages - minister

PARLIAMENT | Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution said the government plans to roll out the targeted fuel subsidy for RON95 in stages, hopefully by the second quarter of next year.

"We plan to implement it in stages, not all in one rollout. We hope to do it in a gradual manner or a sort of trial run to prepare the public to get used to the system.

"Because there are some who will qualify and some who will not, so let there be an adjustment period," he said in the Dewan Rakyat today during the ministers' question-and-answer session.

He was responding to a question from Azrina Surip (Harapan-Merbok), who had asked about the results from the ministry's efforts to get feedback from the public about the planned targeted fuel subsidy.

The Finance Ministry, he said, has already issued an open tender request for proposal from companies to develop, test, implement and operate the system for the targeted fuel subsidy.

The government will choose based on the most competitive proposals to ensure they get the best cost and implementation, Saifuddin said.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had announced during the tabling of Budget 2019 on Nov 2 that the government will subsidise fuel for single-car owners with an engine capacity below 1,500cc or motorcycle with an engine capacity below 125cc.

The government, he had said, will provide a subsidy of 30sen per litre for RON95, limited to 100 litres per month for a car and 40 litres for a motorcycle.

Also during the speech, Lim had said that the subsidy would be introduced sometime in the second quarter of 2019, after which the government planned to reintroduce price float for RON95 fuel price based on the Automatic Price Mechanism (APM) first adopted by the previous BN administration. - Mkini