THE petrol-subsidy scheme has been delayed as the government can’t finalise a practical system to disburse payments to the targeted group, said sources.

The delay, they said, is due to non-availability of data on income groups other than the bottom 40% (B40) households.

“While the ministry is ready, the government can’t proceed with the subsidy system as it lacks data on the M40 group,” one source told The Malaysian Insight.

According to earlier reports, the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs wants to give cash directly to the B40 group. This data already exists from the Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) records.

The data is then cross-checked with the Road Transport Department (RTD) database to determine the number of vehicles in households.

Combined, the BSH and RTD data will allow the ministry to determine how much to pay the different households, according to the number and types of vehicles within the households.

The subsidy involves paying RM30 per car and RM12 per motorcycle subject to a maximum of two cars and two motorcycles per household. The petrol subsidy, which was proposed during Budget 2019, is only applicable to cars under 1,500cc and motorcycles under 125cc.

Another source said it was suggested in the cabinet that the M40 group be given the subsidy using a card payment system.

“But petrol dealers have not agreed to install an additional card payment system at the stations,” said the source.

In March, GHL Systems Bhd announced that it had won a RM25 million contract from the Ministry of Finance to develop and implement the hardware and software applications for the RON95 subsidy programme.

The source said the card system is also difficult to implement in rural areas because of the shortage of petrol stations.

Due to the distances and spread out population in the rural areas, villagers tend to buy their petrol from provision shops or roadside traders instead of petrol stations.

The proposed petrol subsidy is aimed at alleviating households’ petrol consumption bill when the government floats RON95 petrol, which was supposed to be on July 1.

Currently, the price of RON97 is floated while the government subsidises RON95. For this week (August 31-September 6), the price of RON97 is RM2.50 per litre while RON95 is RM2.08. The price of diesel is RM2.18 per litre.

Meanwhile, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail told reporters on Monday that his ministry has finalised its petrol subsidy proposal and will be tabling it at the next cabinet meeting tomorrow.

“But it will depend on how the other ministers receive our proposal or whether it needs to be improved on,” he said. – September 3, 2019.