‘MORE BR1M IF OIL PRICES KEEP SOARING’
Extra revenue from higher oil prices can be chanelled to help people, says minister
THE government will consider increasing the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) temporarily if oil prices continue to soar. Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said the government was aware of the continuous increase in oil prices, and if the increase gave the government more revenue, it would use it to help the people.
“For every US$1 increase per barrel of oil, the government gets an average increase of RM300 million in income.
“Currently, the average price of oil per barrel is US$52. If by the end of December next year the average price increases to US$62 per barrel, the government will have an additional income of RM3 billion,” Johari said when winding up the debate on the Supply Bill 2018 at the committee level for his ministry at the Dewan Rakyat.
He also answered a question by Datuk Mohd Said Yusof (BNJasin), who asked whether the increase in oil prices would affect the inflation rate, especially since transportation contributed to inflation.
“The transportation sector’s weightage is approximately 13.7 per cent. So, if oil prices increase, only our headline inflation increases and core inflation remains stable.
“In the last three to four years, our core inflation remained stable at 2.5 per cent, although the headline inflation increased to four per cent due to the price increase of oil per barrel.”
To an additional question by Nga Kor Ming (DAP-Taiping), who asked for an explanation on the subsidy for oil, Johari said the subsidy of RM1.6 billion was only given to certain segments of society to stimulate the economy, citing fishermen as an example.
He said since the weekly floating system was introduced, oil prices went down only 12 times, compared with 19 times of increase, but the net impact was only one sen. Additional reporting by Beatrice Nita Jay