PUTRAJAYA will take steps to address a United Nations report claiming that Malaysia is under-reporting the poverty level in the country, said Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“We will study what they say to find out if it’s true,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the MyPerintis anniversary dinner in Petaling Jaya tonight.

Dr Mahathir was commenting on a UN special rappoteur’s report that Malaysia’s poverty level should be between 16% and 20% instead of 0.4%.

On whether the government plans to take action, Dr Mahathir said: “If it is necessary, we will.”

UN special rapporteur Prof Philip Alston said Malaysia’s claim of 0.4% poverty rate was unrealistic.

“The insistence that the rate is 0.4%, or about 25,000 Malaysian households, hampers the creation of effective policies targeting deprivation and poverty.

“This is a tragically low line for a country on the cusp of attaining high-income status, especially since a range of independent analyses have suggested a more realistic poverty rate of 16% to 20%, and about 9% of households survive on less than RM2,000 per month,” said Alston.

Earlier today, Economic Affairs Minister Mohamed Azmin Ali defended the country’s current method of calculating its poverty level despite claims from the UN that it is under-reporting such incidence.

He said the national poverty line of RM980 per household per month is derived from internationally accepted standards based on the Canberra Group Handbook on Household Income Statistics, Second Edition (2011).

“While the government appreciates the effort by the special rapporteur in raising awareness on issues of poverty, certain comments are baseless and uncalled for,” Azmin said in a statement today.

“For instance, the assertion that a ‘sizable part of Malaysia’s population struggles to get by with tenuous access to food, shelter, education and healthcare’ is both misconceived and erroneous, clearly lacking empirical evidence and rigorous scientific procedures.” 

Azmin added that the RM980 poverty line income (PLI) level was based on the basic requirements for a household to live healthily and actively.

The national PLI is equivalent to RM8 per day or US$2. In comparison, the PLI targeted in the UN’s own Sustainable Development Goal 1 is US$1.25 per day, Azmin said.

“(Malaysia’s) PLI is also higher for Sabah at RM1,180 and Sarawak (RM1,020) to take into account additional costs, such as transportation,” he said. – August 23, 2019.