Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has stated that the government does not plan to introduce new taxation measures. Instead, it aims to implement a more fair and targeted subsidy system.
The recent announcement about the targeted diesel subsidy will exempt low-income groups, such as fishermen, smallholders, and taxi drivers, from these taxes. Anwar Ibrahim emphasized that the goal is to avoid burdening the people with new taxes. The current issue with diesel subsidies is the significant amount of leakage, costing billions of ringgit. Wealthy individuals and large industries still benefit from these subsidies. The implementation of targeted subsidies will only impact the wealthy, large industries, and foreign nationals.
This means that fishermen, smallholders, Grab and taxi drivers will all be exempt from the tax, potentially benefiting nearly a million citizens.
The government is set to introduce diesel subsidy rationalisation in Peninsular and exempting East Malaysia for now, where those who don’t fall within the targeted bracket will have to pay the floated price, estimated to be anywhere between 50-60% more than what is today.
