The government’s move to cancel a series of subsidies in July has shocked the public, but it is reported that the government will soon announce a cash assistance program to ease the burden of people’s lives.
According to the announcement made by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ishmael Sabil in early June, the government will stop providing subsidies to chicken farmers and will instead provide direct cash assistance to the people from July. The cash assistance program will be announced in the end of June.
The government will no longer provide subsidies to chicken farms in July, allowing chicken prices to follow the market’s free float. The government’s current chicken price cap measure has depressed the domestic chicken industry and may cause the country to rely heavily on imported chicken meat. Therefore, the government has decided to abolish the price ceiling and allow chicken prices to fluctuate freely.
Since last year, the government has been implementing a retail ceiling price for pure palm cooking oil, whereby 1kg to 5kg bottles of pure palm cooking oil cannot be sold above the ceiling price set by the government. This allowance has also increased the government’s expenditure, and the government has decided to abolish the ceiling price from July.
This means that the prices of chicken, eggs and cooking oil will increase from July. Although the government has said it will launch a cash assistance program to ease people’s burden, it is still unclear in what mode the cash assistance will be distributed and who the target groups are.
The government of neighboring Singapore has already announced targeted assistance measures, that is, the distribution of up to S$300 GST vouchers to 1.5 million Singaporeans. The 1.5 million Singaporeans are mainly low- and middle-income employees and retirees with no income.
The Singapore government has also announced a S$100 utility bill subsidy for every Singaporean household by September.
