Govt to monitor global fuel price, inflation rate

KUALA LUMPUR: The government will closely monitor the movement in global fuel prices and inflation rate before making any decision to step in to help the people, said Second Finance Minister, Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani.

He said the decision would dependonhowmuchthegovernment would benefit from the increase in global oil prices.

“The 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) will be continued to alleviate the burden of the Bottom 40 per centhouseholdincomegroup(B40) and middle income household group (M40) categories due to the increase in fuel prices.

“If both the fuel prices and inflation rate increase drastically, the government will step in to help the people, especially those from the two categories to ensure that they don’t fall below the poverty level,” he told reporters after officiating the “Global Marketing Summit 2017” yesterday.

He said for every US$1 increase per barrel in the oil price, the governmentwouldmakeanadditional income of about RM300 million.

“So far, we do not have oil price benchmark in order to step-in,” he added.

On the weekly pump price mechanism, Johari said the government had no plans to change it at the moment and would not set a ceiling price for fuel.

“Ceiling price is a policy matter, I cannot decide and say openly. It needs to be discuss with the Prime Minister and Cabinet because it is verysensitiveissueasitinvolvesall the businesses in Malaysia.

“If (we) say it wrongly, people will interpret differently and this can lead to uncertainty in the environment,” he said. — Bernama