Rising costs bring about disposable income woes

THIS month did not start out well for Jenny (not her real name).

The medical insurance premium for herself and her mother went up from RM195 a month to RM225.

Then her monthly parking cost went up from RM120 to RM180, because Penang’s on-street parking fees shot up by 50% starting this month.

Her fixed monthly expenses is now up by RM90 a month. This added cost brings no enhancement to her quality of life.

She is 30, lives on mainland Penang and is a junior executive for an IT company in George Town.

The building she works in was built in the early 1990s, back when there were far fewer cars and commercial developments did not need to provide as many parking bays – unlike today’s urban planning rules.

She must reach the city before 8am to have any hope of finding a roadside parking space, meaning she has to leave home by about 6am and brave the morning crawl across the sea to get to the island on time.

Knowing her predicament, we quickly told her about Penang Island City Council’s (MBPP) monthly parking pass that only costs RM150.

That helps her shave RM30 off her latest monthly expenses spike, which is enough for four days of lunches; she usually eats economy rice and firmly keeps her cost per plate to about RM7 each time, abstaining from the trays of fish and meats at the stall she frequents.

Food and beverage prices have increased, compounding people’s cost of living. — Filepic

There are millions of Malaysians like Jenny who carefully budget their monthly expenses, and whenever something in those expenses go up, they must go back to their little ledgers and try to balance the figures again.

Jenny’s story is something government leaders, policy makers and bureaucrats must reflect on.

Raw, macro data cannot possibly reflect what the populace – the people you are responsible for – actually go through.

For roughly the last two years, meaning after we climbed out of the Covid-19 pandemic, the cost of living has been going up.

It has been really subtle; a few sen here, a couple of ringgit there.

However, from last year, almost any Malaysian would have said that what was generally called “disposable income” seemed to have become not so disposable anymore.

And since last year, federal and state governments plus many local authorities have started raising all manner of fees.

I empathise with MBPP and its need to raise on-street parking fees.

In 2014, the city council increased it by just 10sen for a half-hour, from 30sen to 40sen, meaning that the per-hour parking fee went from 60sen to 80sen.

Penang island’s parking fees were suppressed for too long and it needed to be increased.

But when raised from 80sen to the current RM1.20 per hour, tally it up for a month and Jenny’s economy rice servings get affected.

Now we hear that Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) is raising cremation costs at its crematorium in Jalan Kuari, Cheras, from RM100 to RM1,000 this month.

But following backlash, Kuala Lumpur mayor Datuk Seri Maimunah Mohd Sharif, who used to be Penang island mayor, put that increase on hold until a meeting can be held with stakeholders.

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow once said something I will always remember.

When there was a serious water disruption in the form of a burst in a major, decades-old water pipe here, Chow made a critical decision and shut down the water supply so that engineers could fix the problem.

Hundreds of thousands of Penangites suffered for many days without water in January last year.

Amid all that unhappiness, Chow told the press: “I could have closed my eyes and left it to a future chief minister to solve the problem.

“But as the leader of the state government and chairman of Penang Water Supply Corporation, it is necessary for me to do this to prevent more severe future losses.”

The bottom line is, I perceive that many public fees and charges in the whole country have been kept low, likely because past leaders did not have the heart to burden the populace.

With costs going up now owing to global problems, it seems unavoidable that governmental fees and charges must go up too.

But we hope the powers-that-be will spare a thought for the people before upping those fees and charges by leaps and bounds.