Many friends were discussing about the fuel subsidy in Budget 2019. Well, naturally drivers of Exora 1.6 and Persona 1.6 are unhappy (my wife and I) while that of Vios 1.5, City 1.5 or even Almera 1.5 are happy that they will be receiving the subsidy of 30 cents per litre up to 100 litres per month. That’s RM30 per month. For the longest of time, I have been one of those who continuously said that subsidy must be targeted and not to be given to everyone. However, when the announcement was made about this ‘customised’ subsidy, I think it’s going to be another long story of how it will be implemented. I was right. After all the never ending discussions about how some luxury car owners will get it instead of the more deserving, here’s the comments from our Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.
Article in TheStar here. “Give us time to iron out the mechanism.” Lim said, “But if you drive a luxury car, please don’t hold your breath!” (Okay that’s the end of one part; luxury car owners.) He also shared that the subsidy was supposed to be for B40 group only but the government felt that it was too small, so they are expanding it to beyond B40 group. Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said as many still owned old vehicles, accurate data would be needed from the Road Transport Department. A reminder came from Prof Tan Sri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali, a UKM economics expert about the issue from the subsidised diesel previously. Many who took the subsidy sold it to others instead. Lim shared that the fuel subsidy system is expected to be implemented in the second quarter of 2019. Full article in TheStar here.
Seriously, the fuel subsidy was announced on 2 November 2019 but it will only be implemented in the second quarter of 2019? I am not getting it anyway but hopefully it’s going to be April 2019 and not end of June 2019 or later. Hopefully it will be smooth without any hiccups and not changed again if there are complaints when it is launched. Personally, we should make things as simple as possible and if the targeted group is too small, then it could also be a higher subsidy for the group. I do not think there are that many new Mercedes or BMW who will protest about the RM30 per month subsidy in front of the Parlimen building. Use ONE list only and perhaps the list from Lembaga Hasil is much better than the JPJ’s or combine both. Let’s remember what my Decision Science lecturer said to our MBA class long time ago, “Decisions should be based on Decision Science… and not Political Science.” Oh yeah, this should also be the same for the Ministry of Local Government and Housing too…
written on 4 Nov 2018
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