Fuel subsidy programme to begin in January

Rapt viewers: Visitors and staff of Senheng Electric in Petaling Jaya watching the live Budget 2020 announcement.

KUALA LUMPUR: The RM2.2bil fuel Targeted Subsidy Programme (PSP) will be launched in January next year and is expected to benefit more than eight million motorists.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said individuals who owned not more than two cars and two motorcycles were eligible to receive PSP for one vehicle.

The qualifying criteria is for the passenger car to have a 1,600cc engine and below or 1,600cc and above which is more than 10 years old.

For motorcycles, it must be 150cc and below; if it is over 150cc, it must be at least seven years old.No luxury vehicles are qualified to receive the targeted subsidies, said Lim.

For eligible recipients of Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH), the petrol subsidy receivable will be RM30 per month for car owners and RM12 per month for motorcycle owners.

This subsidy will be in the form of cash transfer deposited into the recipient’s bank account every four months, with the first to be made in April 2020 for the first four months of the year.

Motorists who are not BSH recipients will receive a special Kad95 allowing them to enjoy the fuel subsidy at a discount of 30 sen per litre limited to 100 litres per month for cars or 40 litres per month for motorcycles when purchasing RON95 at the petrol station.

The Kad95 will be implemented progressively during the first quarter of 2020.

Lim said once the fuel subsidy scheme starts, the prices of RON95 petrol and diesel will be gradually floated to reduce leakages and cross-border smuggling of subsidised fuel.

The fuel subsidy will kick in whenever the RON95 market price determined by the Automatic Pricing Mechanism (APM) is above RM2.08 per litre, but no fuel subsidy will be given when the APM price falls below RM2.08 per litre.

Motorists in Sabah and Sarawak will continue to enjoy a fuel price ceiling of RM2.08 per litre for RON95 and RM2.18 per litre for diesel.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution said the government also included the criteria for M40 recipients, for those who own not more than two cars and two motorcycles, due to public demand.

“After the announcement of the petrol subsidy programme on Oct 7, the ministry received feedback from the people, especially calls for the M40 group to be eligible for the subsidy, ” he said.- Star