Under the guidelines, all ministries, departments and agencies shall reorganise the allocation and propose savings to achieve the target of at least 5% of the remaining allocation for 2022

by ANIS HAZIM / pic TMR FILE

THE guidelines on public expenditure savings aims to minimise the national expenditure to cover the current subsidies, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz (picture) said.

Tengku Zafrul said the government has to find ways to reduce the country’s expenses as the costs of subsidies are increasing.

“In this regard, the government through the Finance Ministry has issued the guidelines to implement spending savings measures to help finance some of the additional expenses related to subsidies for the wellbeing of the people,” Tengku Zafrul said in the People’s Financial Report during his Facebook live today.

Under the guidelines, all ministries, departments and agencies shall reorganise the allocation and propose savings to achieve the target of at least 5% of the remaining allocation for 2022.

According to the finance minister, the country’s subsidies have reached RM77.7 billion compared to the RM31 billion allocation approved in Budget 2022.

“The government is detailing the method of implementing targeted subsidies for subsidised goods such as petroleum to ensure fairer implementation for all Malaysians,” he added.

On the targeted fuel subsidy, he said the mechanism is still in the initial stages of testing which will take about three to six months before being implemented.

“It is implemented in phases to avoid instinctive inflation and trapping the country’s economic growth momentum,” he added.

Currently, he noted that the government’s strategy for the national subsidies is to replace the bulk subsidies with targeted subsidies and cash aid in stages.