The total amount of subsidies for Malaysian people is expected to reach near 80 billion RM (nearly 20 billion USD) in 2022, according to Malaysian Minister of Finance Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz.

Malaysian Minister of Finance Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz (Photo: Bernama)

In the 100^th People’s Financial Report released on June 27, the minister said to reduce inflationary pressures on the people, the government has provided various consumption subsidies consisting of petrol, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), cooking oil, flour and electricity.

The projected consumption subsidies expenditure for 2022 is the highest amount of subsidies in history ever borne by any government, he added.

The Malaysian government will continue to implement policies to curb inflation in order to avoid excessive price increases, and help those in need of direct assistance.

Large amounts of government funds have been spent to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including saving people’s lives through national vaccination programmes as well as maintaining employment and business capacity through Wage Subsidy Programmes, the minister said.

For the Wage Subsidy Programme, the government in total has channelled more than 20 billion RM to more than 350,000 employers to maintain the employment of nearly 3 million local workers in an effort to reduce the unemployment rate.

Source: VNA