The Jihad On Inflation Special Committee would end up as another empty “talk shop” without any concrete action if Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob does not take charge personally to emphasize the government’s serious commitment to address the severe financial crisis facing the rakyat and businesses. What is the point of setting up another special 6-man Cabinet Committee when headed by Communications and Multimedia Minister Annuar Musa, who cannot even get his numbers right on the cost-benefit analysis of the removal of subsidies for chicken, eggs and cooking oil(except 1kg packs)?
Annuar had made the false claim last week that the government had decided to increase the subsidies’ value by reviewing the current subsidies even though the government had only passed on to the rakyat RM630 million of the RM960 million in savings from the removal of subsidies for chickens, eggs and cooking oil(except for 1kg packs).
In saving RM 960 million from subsidy removals but only giving out RM630 million in additional aid in the form of extra cash of RM100 to B40 households and RM50 to bachelors, means the rakyat loses out on RM330 million in previous subsidy benefits. Can we expect a Minister who does not know what he is talking about or cannot count to help us overcome inflation and rising prices?
PPI For May Rising To 11.2% And Severe Labour Shortage Unresolved
Worse, the M40 and SMEs get no extra aid at all even though they suffer as much. This is shown by the rise in production costs and measured by Malaysia’s producer price index (PPI) local production, which measures the costs of goods at the factory gate, of 11.2% in May 2022 compared with 11% in April 2022.
Many analysts contend that rising labour and material costs compounded by the severe worker shortage, caused the disastrous failure of the current government to facilitate the entry of local workers. The Prime Minister can help to mitigate rising costs by resolving the labour shortages of foreign workers at the stroke of his pen but has again refused to take charge. How long can Ismail Sabri wait when the financial situation gets more difficult with even the CPI for May 2022 exceeding expectations by increasing to 2.8% despite all the controlled pricing imposed on essential goods.