SHAH ALAM: The Budi Madani RON95 (Budi95) programme does not rely heavily on the Central Database Hub (Padu) system, says Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan.
The Finance Minister II said the government uses Padu for managing large volumes of data, particularly for analytics as it contains a rich data set.
“However, for initiatives like the Budi95 programme, we don’t need to rely entirely on Padu, because our criteria are relatively simple.
“In this case, the only criteria we consider are whether someone is a Malaysian citizen, and whether they hold a valid driving licence.
“Since the eligibility criteria are very limited, we don’t need to involve the full complexity of the Padu dataset,” he said during a media briefing on the Budi95 programme yesterday.
He stressed that the Padu system was still useful for the government in crafting policies.
“We’ve already had many uses of Padu in many instances, and the demand from agencies for data analytics continues to grow.
“For government policy-making, including within the Finance Ministry, Padu plays an important role in data validation and cross-checking.
“The more data we validate, the fewer errors we encounter,” he said.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Monday announced that Malaysians with a MyKad and valid driving licence will enjoy 300 litres of subsidised RON95 per month at the price of RM1.99, while e-hailing drivers can apply for a higher amount.
He said Putrajaya is also expected to save RM2.5bil- RM4bil a year from the RON95 subsidy rationalisation, depending on oil prices while the savings come from eliminating leakages.
He added that about 20% of the fuel users were non-citizens and corporates.
By removing subsidies for this group, the government, he said, was able to generate the savings.
“The savings can be used for important projects,” he said.
He also said the blanket subsidy method is no longer considered sustainable because it takes up a significant amount of government finances.
“If we look at the funding from 2023 to 2024, the subsidy for RON95 alone cost us nearly RM20bil a year,” he said.
“A blanket subsidy meant that even those who are ineligible can still purchase at the subsidised price.”
He stressed that even with the rationalisation, the government is still on track to meet its 3.8% fiscal deficit target.
