OWNERS of four-wheel-drive vehicles in rural Sarawak have nothing to fear, says Chong Chieng Jen, as they will not be left out of the government’s proposed fuel subsidy scheme.
The deputy domestic trade and consumer affairs minister said their concerns have been forwarded to the Finance Ministry.
“I have already conveyed their concerns to the Finance Ministry.”
Last week, owners of four-wheel-drive vehicles in Baram voiced their worry over the fact that their vehicles – with an engine capacity of 2,000cc and above – do not fall within the parameters of a subsidy scheme proposed by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng when tabling the 2019 Budget in November last year.
Lim had proposed a subsidy of up to 100 litres per month for cars with an engine capacity of 1,500cc and below, and up to 40 litres per month for motorcycles with a capacity below 125cc.
The Telang Usan Four-Wheel Drive Owners Association members had said they owned these high-capacity vehicles not because they were rich, but out of necessity.
Their elected representative, Telang Usan assemblyman Dennis Ngau, had also supported their claim, saying roads in Baram were not designed for saloon cars.
Ngau had said they had no choice but use four-wheel-drive vehicles as they were the only ones that could handle the rough and treacherous logging roads connecting rural communities.
Ngau had also said “appropriate subsidies” should be drawn up by the federal government “to lighten their burden”.
“All these are still in the process,” the Stampin MP and Sarawak Pakatan Harapan chief said at his first-ever open house as a deputy minister in the new PH government.
Chong also said how the subsidy would be channelled was still being discussed.
This subsidy mechanism is slated for implementation in the second quarter of this year. – February 6, 2019.
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