KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 (Bernama) -- The government is ready to consider applications for additional subsidised petrol quota under the BUDI MADANI RON95 (BUDI95) initiative from farmers and traders if there is proof of their use exceeding the set quota.
Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said currently each individual is eligible for 300 litres a month, which is deemed adequate for daily needs, including the use of electric generators and small machines.
“In any set up or whatever we do, there will be challenges and exceptions to the rule.
“So what we can see if we have calculated for e-hailing for example, we allow them to request for a higher quota or eligibility as long as we get support from the e-hailing company stating that they are full time players.
“We get data from the company in stages to allow us to check. So, if there is a situation involving traders or farmers, the government can study their application, but we need a confirmation mechanism before approval is given,” he said at a media briefing on the RON95 subsidy rationalisation here today addressing questions on whether the government would consider a special BUDI95 quota for certain groups.
Amir Hamzah said the government would have a record of usage by identification card (IC) number for each transaction, which would allow checks to be done periodically and if there was any abuse, the additional quota would be revoked and the consumer would return to the basic quota of 300 litres a month.
There was feedback from several parties yesterday that the BUDI95 initiative might not take into account the realities of a farmer’s life, including the use of petrol in field work along with agriculture equipment such as water pumps, grass cutters, seeding machines, fertiliser and pesticide pumps that are used by farmers.
Amir Hamzah also noted the difference between the BUDI95 mechanism and the Centralised Database (PADU) introduced by the government for a previous subsidy rationalisation, stating that PADU was used widely for data analysis, including in determining policies and sensitivity studies by ministries and government agencies.
“PADU is rich with data and is now used by many agencies and ministries for analytics. Demand for use of PADU data is rising and it will help the government in making scenario analysis and setting certain cut off points,” he added.
He stressed that the system to implement BUDI95 did not require the complete PADU data as the qualification criteria was brief, which is being a Malaysian national and having a valid driving license.
“BUDI MADANI does not require the complexity of PADU as its criteria is limited. At the same time, PADU remains vital as more data is validated, the lower the possibility of errors in government policies,” he added.
-- BERNAMA
