KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 15 ― PKR MP Rafizi Ramli accused Datuk Ahmad Maslan today of lying to Malaysians about the country’s subsidy burden, alleging the deputy minister had exaggerated the RM24 billion figure he claimed Putrajaya pays for fuel subsidies alone.

Instead, Rafizi pointed out that the projected figure for diesel and petrol subsidies this year was actually RM13.7 billion, which the PKR vice-president said was still little compared to the amount the government has to pay for the interests of its growing debt, which is estimated at RM24.4 billion a year.

Ahmad’s RM24 billion figure, Rafizi added, had likely included the RM5 billion subsidy bill for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and a further RM5 billion for handouts under the government’s Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia (BR1M) initiative.

“We call on Datuk Ahmad Maslan to stop insulting the people by trying to paint this picture that the government's poor financial position is caused by the rakyat.

“Petrol and diesel subsidies that are often picked on by Ahmad Maslan is actually less than half of the interests the people have to pay because the Barisan Nasional (BN) government continues to be in debt,” he told a press conference in Parliament lobby here.

Rafizi also asked Ahmad to explain in details the spending used from the fuel subsidy cuts, noting that the deputy minister had justified the cuts by saying the savings could help Putrajaya build more schools and universities.

“So how many have been spent on hospitals or public transport upgrades and others?” He said.

Rafizi noted that from the government's own estimation, fuel subsidy cuts would save taxpayers RM4.7 billion from September 2013 to the same month this year.

Add on to the RM1.4 billion the government said it would be saving from the recent move to hike the price of RON95 petrol by 20 sen,  Rafizi said that would give the Najib administration RM6.1 billion in total savings from the fuel subsidy reduction.

“So where are the dozens of hospitals, schools, universities that Barisan Nasional said it would build from the savings for the past year?” the Pandan MP asked.

Yesterday, Ahmad Maslan said the government could build 40 schools with the money saved from its subsidy rationalisation exercise in defence of the unpopular move.

The deputy finance minister also pointed out that Malaysia's prices for fuel and diesel were still cheaper despite the cut compared with Singapore and Thailand, where he said a litre of RON95 petrol was RM6 and RM5, respectively.