TARGETED RON95 SUBSIDY MECHANISM STILL BEING FINE-TUNED -- AMIR HAMZAH

KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 (Bernama) -- The mechanism for the targeted RON95 subsidy is still being fine-tuned and will involve a two-tier pricing system as well as potentially involve using MyKad, said Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan.

He said that the government does not want to make any pre-announcements regarding the subsidy's implementation at this time, and an announcement is expected after the first half of this year.

"The most important thing we want to ensure is that the system is robust. We will use two-tier pricing: a non-subsidised price and a subsidised price.

"More than 85 per cent of the population will receive the subsidised price; that is the approach to subsidy targeting in Malaysia," he said at a press conference during the launch of the RapidKL Open Payment On-Demand system by Prasarana.

Also present at the launch were Transport Minister Anthony Loke and Prasarana Group president and chief executive officer Mohd Azharuddin Mat Sah.

Amir Hamzah said that the use of MyKad for subsidy targeting could be based on the system used for the Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) programme.

Currently, 700,000 people receive SARA assistance of RM50 to RM100 per month, which is used for purchasing goods through the MyKad system.

"At the moment, there are 700,000 individuals, and starting next week, this will increase to 5.4 million people who will receive SARA, and they will be using MyKad.

"There are over 3,500 retail stores and supermarkets that can utilise the MyKad system for SARA. So, if we can implement MyKad for 5.4 million people with 3,500 stores, it shouldn't be much different if we use it for RON95 as well," he added.

-- BERNAMA