MADANI GOVT'S PERFORMANCE IN CONTROLLING INFLATION, RISING PRICES OF FOOD, DRINK COMMENDABLE - RAFIZI

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 6 (Bernama) -- The MADANI Government has done an excellent job at controlling inflation, especially the rising prices of food and drink, since it took over the administration of the country, Economic Affairs Minister Rafizi Ramli said.

He added that the lowest inflation rate for food and drink recorded since the change in government in 2018 was in July, at 0.7 per cent and remained low till May 2019, before rising to 1.2 per cent, an effect of the abolishment of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

“It rose more than two per cent in June 2019 and only dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic due to lack of demand… in October 2021, prices of food and drink rose drastically from 1.9 per cent to 7.2 per cent in August 2022.

“Prices only started dropping significantly from March 2023 with 6.9 per cent, then to 4.1 per cent in August 2023, two per cent in January 2024 and now is at 1.6 per cent for September 2024,” he said while winding up the debate on the Supply Bill 2025 for the ministry at the Dewan Rakyat today.

Based on the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), from 2011 to 2024, the rate was between 2 to 5.7 per cent, he said and cautioned those who were too quick to accuse the government of manipulating economic statistics.

He also refuted allegations that the development and implementation of the Central Database Hub (PADU) had cost up to RM85 million, pointing out that the true cost had only reached RM31 million as of September.

“This total covers the purchase of ICT equipment, including servers, firewalls, network security and hardware worth RM190,000, ICT software (RM4.6 million), cloud computing and system testing (RM6.4 million).

“What was costly was the user registration exercise as we had to hire MySTEP personnel to be mobilised throughout the country to man registration counters and go to villages, that cost RM19.3 million, he said, adding that PADU’s systems were developed by civil servants and if it had used the old way by paying outside sources, the cost would have exceeded hundreds of millions.

He noted that PADU allowed the government to transition from the gross income approach to net expendable income, added with the method of accessing reasonable basic living expenses by DOSM.

“Therefore the classification of those who qualify and those who don’t qualify for the RON95 subsidy, is based on net expendable income and the government’s aim is for 85 per cent of households following this mention to receive subsidies, as it is fair and just.

“At this stage, the criteria has to be fine tuned… The Economic Affairs Ministry and the Finance Ministry are fine tuning it before the Cabinet decides,” he said.

-- BERNAMA