KUALA LUMPUR, April 25 – Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the government will share details on the subsidy rationalisation plan, including its criteria and implications soon.
He emphasised that if the government subsidy rationalisation policy is successful, the savings could be diverted into social assistance, potentially boosting poverty reduction while generating fiscal savings.
“I know people have been asking about when we are going to introduce the mechanism, however, prioritising the harmonisation and preparation for it is necessary for something as big as this,” he said.
Rafizi said this during the launch of the World Bank’s 29th Malaysia Economic Monitor, titled ‘Bending Bamboo Shoots: Strengthening Foundation Skills’.
He noted that 11.6 million individuals or 52.6 per cent of Malaysians aged 18 and above have registered on the centralised database hub (PADU).
“This gives us the sufficient bandwidth to finally implement subsidy rationalisation and transition away from the regressive model of blanket subsidies.
“With this level of necessary, granular data, we can minimise both exclusion and inclusion errors, and ensure an equitable distribution of subsidies to those that need them most,” he said.
