BANGI, June 24 — Micro-targeted assistance is the best method to implement as it would meet the needs of the people and help reduce the total of subsidies borne by the government, economist Prof Tan Sri Dr Noor Azlan Ghazali said.
“For instance, a family that has a child studying in a university and another family with a child in nursery school, let’s not give all of them laptops or diapers. That’s the concept, you get what you need,” he said.
“With this micro-targeting method, recipients will feel the government understands their problems while for the government, the total subsidies spent might be reduced and the government can achieve sustainability in this way,” he said.
The Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Malaysian Inclusivity, Development and Advancement Institute (Minda) director made the comments at a media conference after appearing as a panellist on the UKM’s 61st Bicara Persada entitled ‘Menjunjung Titah Hari Keputeraan Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah : Apa Tindakan Seterusnya?’ here today.
On the issue of subsidies and the additional Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia (BKM) assistance announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob on Wednesday (22 June), Noor Azlan said Malaysians need to understand that the assistance would not be forever.
The government was not taking subsidies away from the people, but was restructuring the method of provision as temporary government aid to reduce the people’s burden, especially with the current issue of rising prices.
“In the long-term, if the country has nearly achieved a high-income nation status, it would be unlikely eight million (BKM recipients) still require aid from the government continuously. So accurate targeting (micro-targeting) is much better than wide-encompassing subsidies,” he said.
Ismail Sabri said on Wednesday that Putrajaya was still maintaining the subsidies for one kilogramme (kg) cooking oil packs with a total of RM4 billion this year.
He also announced an additional RM100 cash aid under BKM for households and RM50 for single Malaysians after the government considered the issues of rising prices and the cost of living.
— Bernama
