Malaysian government may not implement the subsidy rationalisation for the RON95 as per its original plan. This is after Minister of Communications, Fahmi Fadzil, revealed that the timeline for the implementation has “slightly shifted”.
The remark was part of his response during a press conference at the Parliament earlier today, after being asked by members of the media regarding the latest status of the RON95 subsidy.
“The Prime Minister has expressed the view that he does not want the implementation of policies that would have a negative impact on the majority of the Rakyat.
That is why, after the implementation of several policies previously, such as the retargeting of diesel subsidies and other initiatives, we see the need for a bit of research into the distribution mechanism and to ensure there are no negative knock-on effects.
If we look at the issue of SST expansion, several matters have been studied after the announcement, (and) several adjustments were made. The same applies to policies that have not yet been implemented but have been envisioned or mentioned previously regarding RON95.” – Minister of Communications, Fahmi Fadzil
However, the minister did not mention any new timeline for the implementation during the press conference. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim previously said during the tabling of Budget 2025 last year that the RON95 subsidy rationalisation would be implemented by the middle of 2025, and he insisted that 85% of the Rakyat would not be affected by the rationalisation.
Once it is put into motion, MyKad will likely be used to verify the eligibility of RON95 subsidy recipients, which would be similar to the verification method used for the Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) programme. This is something that Finance Minister II, Amir Hamzah Azizan, has said on several occasions for the past few months, although nothing has been set in stone so far.
