The Federal Government is committed to ensuring Sabah receive a larger special grant than the existing amount of RM26.7 million since 1973.

Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the Federal and State Governments had a productive discussion on Sabah’s special grants on Monday.

“The negotiation is ongoing. In Parliament, I have said that our commitment is to ensure Sabah gets more than what they are getting today, which is RM26.7 million since 1973.

“We will continue to have discussion and when the time is right, we will make the necessary announcements,” he said to The Borneo Post in an exclusive interview on Monday as part of his working visit to Sabah.

On inflation and higher prices of goods in Sabah, Tengku Zafrul pointed out that inflation was a global phenomenon arising from higher commodity prices in addition to supply chain shortages during the pandemic and post-pandemic due to a surge in pent-up demand for all types of consumer goods.

Nevertheless, he assured that the government continued to monitor inflation carefully, particularly the price of essential goods.

“As announced by the Prime Minister, the government has taken the unprecedented step to introduce a subsidy for chicken and eggs as part of efforts to mitigate the impact of rising prices to consumers.

“The subsidy for chicken and eggs is expected to involve a subsidy of RM500 million from the government over the next four months.”

He said the Federal Government has also taken active steps to address the potentially higher cost of goods in Sabah and Sarawak due to the higher cost of logistics.

“We are increasing the allocation for distribution of basic goods, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and community drumming from RM150 million in 2020 to RM200 million in 2021, of which RM67 million is spent in Sabah.

“All these show how the government has mitigated inflation by maintaining the price of key essential goods despite the rise is global prices.”

For instance, he said the people continued to enjoy RON95 petrol at RM2.05 per litre, which is among the lowest anywhere in the world.

He said the real cost of RON95 has exceeded RM3 per litre and the government continued to subsidize the difference, which was approximately RM840 million for Sabah.

“For 2022, the subsidy budget is RM2 billion but our actual subsidy totalled at RM20 billion, meaning we have to find an additional RM18 billion.”

Likewise, he said the real cost for a 14-kilogramme of LPG or cooking gas was actually double of what consumers pay on the ground. The subsidized 1 kg pack of cooking oil which retails at RM2.50 actually cost more than RM6 per kg.

“Nonetheless, given that we are still recovering from the pandemic, we cannot address the issues in our economy too quickly, as some are interlinked and structural.

“At the same time, it should be noted that the rise in global commodity price which leads to inflation also contributes positively to Sabah’s economy as a major producer of oil and gas, and palm oil.

“But rest assured that the government is monitoring inflation closely and will always ensure the rakyat and businesses are adequately cared for.”

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by THE BORNEO POST

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