Padu’s role in fiscal policy

Targeting subsidies: At present, subsidies including for RON95 petrol are available to everyone. Data in Padu will help to identify those who are in need and channel the subsidies to them.

A TOTAL of RM70.3bil was spent on subsidies in 2022. It was therefore timely for the government to introduce the Central Database Hub (Padu), which would serve as the national database of socioeconomic information to assist in determining recipients for targeted subsidies.

Subsidies have been a cornerstone of Malaysian economic policy for decades, with the aim of lowering the cost of living and improving social welfare. However, maintaining the subsidies has become a huge burden to the government due to rising global commodity prices and a larger national budget.