PUTRAJAYA, Nov 28 — The government has been conducting an audit on subsidised cooking oil in every state and district since October this year to resolve the issue of leakages, said Acting Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali.
He said the audit would help the government to determine the actual needs and streamline the method for granting cooking oil subsidies.
“Our target is to complete the audit in January. Maybe at that time we can make an announcement on the cases uncovered (findings),” he said, adding that the audit would also give an overall view of the implementation of cooking oil subsidy so far.
Speaking at a press conference after attending the Symposium on Cost of Living (SCOL) 2023 here today, Armizan said the government needed to come up with a mechanism to prevent leakages and misappropriation of subsidised cooking oil, which were detrimental to the people.
The government originally allocated RM500 million in cooking oil subsidies for this year but projections showed that the figure would increase by about four times to some RM1.9 billion, he said.
Armizan also said the proposed mechanism for implementing targeted subsidies for RON95 petrol would be tabled by the Economy Minister at the coming Cabinet meeting.
He said a special cross-ministry committee on the implementation of targeted subsidies for RON95 petrol had been established.
Yesterday, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the government would introduce the mechanism for targeted subsidies for RON95 in the second half of 2024 to ensure the subsidies would reach the target groups and resources are optimised.
RON95, which is subsidised by the government, is sold at RM2.05 per litre. — Bernama
