Taxi, school bus drivers to enjoy Socso contributions from next month – Minister
Effective next month, a total of 35,000 taxi drivers and 18,000 school bus drivers in the country will benefit from Social Security Organisation (Socso) subscriptions, which will be paid fully by the government, says Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
He said 90 per cent of their Socso subscription would be borne through an allocation from the Finance Ministry, while the Transport Ministry (MoT) would be paying the remaining 10 per cent for one year.
“We understand that the Finance Ministry has allocated Socso RM100 million for subscription of up to 90 per cent for taxi drivers, e-hailing, phailing and so on.
“The remaining 10 per cent has to be contributed by the drivers themselves. So for the taxi and school bus drivers, we will fork up the 10 per cent contribution for one year,” he told a media conference aer the ministry’s ‘Sua Kasih Madani Programme’ here yesterday.
The move, he said, was to provide social protection to taxi and school bus drivers in the event of an accident.
Elaborating, Loke said he had discussed with Socso the implementation of the initiative, as well as the list of taxi and school bus drivers from the Land Public Transport Agency (APAD).
“We expect to launch this initiative in March. That means taxi drivers and school bus drivers do not have to contribute a single cent (for Socso subscription) for a year – they just have to register their names.
“For those who are already registered (with Socso), with the 10 per cent from MoT, they also do not have to pay a single cent,” he said.
On another subject, Loke said his ministry had reached an agreement in principle to allow airlines to impose additional fees to cover their carbon emission.
He said certain airlines would adopt the fee to purchase sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) while others would pay carbon credit to offset their carbon emission.
“So in short, yes Malaysia will also take certain steps but at this point of time it will not be mandatory for all airlines,” he told reporters.
Loke was asked to comment on Singapore’s decision to impose green fuel levy on flights from 2026 and whether Malaysia would undertake a similar decision.
He said as far as Malaysia was concerned, airlines were encouraged to adapt SAF – however, he said this would ‘come with a cost’.
“So some airlines have wrien to the ministry, to request to be allowed to make certain changes for carbon levy, but that is not mandatory for airlines,” he said.
Loke said airlines had yet to start the levy as there would be certain amendments made under the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Code of Conduct) Regulations 2018 by Malaysian Aviation Commision (Mavcom).
“It will come with a very minimal cost. Firstly our objective is not to burden the consumer, but on the other hand, we have this obligation, that every country must fulfil this obligation on carbon reduction.”
While raising concern that it was important to balance between obligation and consumers, Loke said imposing too much levy would ‘kill’ the industry and discourage people from flying, as well as the economy.
“So we are making a balancing act while we understand the burden faced by airlines to reduce carbon emission but at the same time, we also do not want to burden passengers.
“So even if there are charges imposed by airlines, it must be very minimal,” he said.
Loke added that while MoT allowed airlines to adopt different approaches to cover carbon emission besides the carbon levy, he emphasised other measures needed to be taken as well, such as optimising the airlines’ operational efficiency and air traffic management. — Bernama