Has the government run out of money until they cannot even find seed money of RM 3 billion to set up a Price Stabilisation Fund to reduce rising cost of living faced by the rakyat? The impression of the government running out of money follows their weak response of still studying the suggestion of a Price Stabilisation Fund when prices have risen for so long, and at the same time openly laments that the rise in oil prices as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine has escalated the cost of petrol subsidies to RM 28 billion.
Rising oil prices will only cause food prices and other commodities to go up higher. Unless a Price Stabilisation Fund is set up, the people will have no protection and face the full brunt of the price increase. As an oil exporter, the government’s claims that rising oil prices does not benefit the government but will incur losses because higher petrol subsidies must bear public scrutiny. The government has still not released detailed information of the cost benefit effect to the country of the rising oil price as promised.
The government must take proactive action and can no longer do nothing in the face of rising prices. There must be a Price Stabilisation Fund. The least the government can do to reduce the rakyat’s financial burden is to remove the tax imposed on companies bringing back their earnings from overseas countries, defer the increase in electricity tariffs imposed on commercial users, withdraw the proposal to increase compound fines of breaching COVID-19 SOPs of individuals from RM1,000 to RM10,000 and companies to RM1 million as well allow EPF contributors to withdraw up to RM5,000 of their savings.