KUALA LUMPUR: Individuals earning more than the average salary or those who fall under the top 20 income group (T20) will no longer receive any subsidies pertaining to electricity or hajj.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said the government will coordinate the distribution of subsidies according to income groups through the implementation of the household socioeconomic database, Pangkalan Data Utama (Padu) which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
"To curb leakages, the government has initiated targeted electricity tariff in the first half of 2023 to maintain the tariff for households, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and agricultural producers.
"Hence, we will not increase the electricity tariff, unless for the T20 and this will be coordinated by the Padu system," he said during the question and answer session in the first meeting of Dewan Rakyat, today.
Anwar said this in response to a question from Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin (Perikatan Nasional-Larut) who enquired about new and drastic policies that have been implemented to boost Malaysia's economy.
Last week (May 15), Anwar said households with high electricity consumption would no longer enjoy government subsidies.
Anwar said recently that households, such as those that used three fans and four air conditioners, should pay the actual cost of consumption.
In early March, Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said the government had allocated RM10.76 billion to cover electricity bill subsidies for domestic and non-domestic consumers in the low voltage (LV) category from Jan 1 to June 30, 2023.
Meanwhile, Anwar also said the government has implemented a targeted approach for Hajj subsidies for the B40, where costs borne by the Bottom 40 (B40) group will not be increased.
"A more targeted approach has also been implemented by the government for Hajj financial assistance where there is no increase in costs borne by the B40 and subsidies are stopped for the T20 group," he said.