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 the people’s daily life.
According to the announcement made by Prime Minister in early June, government will stop providing subsidies to chicken farmers and will provide cash assistance directly to the people from July onwards. 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. For this reason, the government has decided to abolish the price ceiling and allow chicken prices to fluctuate freely.
Since last year, 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.
