The new ‘mahamiskin’ fear

Subsidy cuts: In his budget speech on Oct 18, Anwar said the T15 would have to pay more for fuel, education, and public services. However, he has yet to explain who would be categorised as T15. — Bernama

ARE you a member of the T15?

Some of my M40 friends who are borderline T20 are worried that they might be, and some of my T20 friends who are borderline M40 are also concerned.

For a while now, and for statistical purposes, Malaysians have been divided into three household income groups. B40 represents the bottom 40% of income earners, M40 is the 40% of middle-income earners, and T20 is the top 20%.

Traditionally, the B40 are viewed as low-income families usually facing financial challenges, the M40 are considered the country’s middle class with enough money to cover basic needs, and the T20 are those with higher disposable income.

However, real life is never that cut and dried, of course, and the statistics show that it is more complex than this neat division. Some in the lower bracket of T20 see themselves as the “new poor”, and when the term T15 was first introduced, they worried they would be even poorer.

Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim first mentioned the term T15 in Budget 2025. In his budget speech on Oct 18, Anwar said the wealthiest 15% of Malaysians and foreigners benefited from 40% of the government’s RON95 subsidies, which total RM8bil a year. He suggested that the T15 would see a reduction in fuel, education, and public services subsidies starting in the middle of 2025.

Anwar also called the T15 the “mahakaya” (super or ultra rich).

But who qualifies to be T15?

As neither Anwar nor the government has offered an answer, many Googled it. They found that a household earning RM12,000 or RM13,000 and above might be classified as T15. They concluded that a working couple earning RM6,000 each monthly would be considered T15, so they might need to pay the market price for RON95. These T15 mahakaya would be the “new poor” if that were the case.

But is that the case?

Nobody knows as the government has been silent about its definition of T15.

When there is silence, noise will be made to fill it, and potential T15 members are making that noise because they’re worried they might be the “new poor” .

The new category reinforces the belief that, with each budget announcement, the government of the day cares more about the B40 group at the expense of the M40 group – that is, the middle class that is working hard to subsidise the B40 group.

I suspect Pakatan Harapan’s middle-class voters are currently feeling they have been “di anak tiri kan” (made a stepchild) in favour of the B40 group, whom they think voted mostly for Perikatan Nasional.

Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli has tried to give the worried public some clarity on the T15 definition. He said it won’t be solely about household income but also about other factors like locality, essential household expenditure, and overall quality of life. But Rafizi’s explanation has done little to soothe the worries of my newly poor T20 and M40 friends. They will worry about their household bills until there’s an official announcement about who qualifies as T15.

The Opposition is also echoing this middle-class worry on the ground.

Perikatan chairman and Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin cautioned that implementing subsidy rationalisation by defining the T15 group could end up being unfair to the middle class.

During debates on Budget 2025 in the Dewan Rakyat recently, the Pagoh MP pointed out that the government had yet to define the T15 group, which purportedly included those with a monthly household income of RM13,296 and above.

The former prime minister said such a classification would result in a husband-and-wife pair earning RM7,000 a month each ending up in the T15 group.

“It would be unfair to classify such families as mahakaya when their disposable income would be affected by housing and car loans, and education fees for their children,” he said.

On Friday, Anwar said he felt “lemas” (overwhelmed) and puzzled by the Opposition’s strenuous defence of the wealthy. He noted that when debating the government’s plan to target petrol subsidies in Parliament, many in the Opposition strongly defended the T15:

“If [I] listen to the parliamentary debate, I ‘lemas’ also, more parliamentarians defend the T15 rather than the [plight] of the people who constitute 85% ... the M40 and B40,” the Prime Minister said.

“I feel it is strange when some say I am anti-wealthy.”

He continued: “I am not anti-wealthy. I am merely saying [due to you being] wealthy, do not go to the extent of taking subsidies [for the poor]. You are wealthy, so pay.”

The Prime Minister fails to understand that it is those who are worried that they are borderline T15 who are concerned about the possibility of losing access to petrol subsidies.

My real mahakaya friends, who travel about in chauffeured MPVs, are not worried about losing subsidies. They form about 3% of the Malaysian population, or roughly one million Malaysians.

It is the newly poor “maha-kaya” couples earning a combined income of about RM15,000 a month who are worried that they will be the new “mahamiskin” (super or ultra poor) if categorised as T15.

That’s rich.