Wanita Gerakan Deputy Chief Ng Siew Lai today expresses her concern over the issue of increasing living expenses that is slapping on the people. “Since the reduction of sugar subsidy and the price of milk has increased, people are feeling the pinch as food and beverage prices increased quietly especially at hawker centers and grocery shops.”

Ng Siew Lai said, “Now that the government is considering reducing the subsidy for RON95 and revising the tariff for electricity, the inflation impact is going to be greater on the rakyat, especially the poor community.”

Ng Siew Lai said, the government has done a great job by removing a few highway tolls, for example the latest one at Connaught, however, the truth is, removing highway toll only benefited those who drive which mostly are not from the poor community. Majority of the people from the poor community relies on public transportation, hence, a price hike on petrol and diesel is going to increase the fare for taking public transport as well.

Ng Siew Lai who is also Penang Gerakan Wanita Chief said, it is understandable that the government can no longer bear cost of subsidy which is increasing at a tremendous rate due to global petrol price hike, however, the government must not pass the burden to the poor by scrapping the subsidy as it would affect those living below poverty line greatly. Ng Siew Lai suggests that the government give the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) which are currently available for civil servants to the low income group so that the impact of inflation would not be too great on them. By doing so, government would not only save on the cost of subsidy, the government can also assist the poor community financially, thus reducing the impact of price hike of goods on that layer of society.

Ng added, the purpose of having subsidy system is to benefit the poor and not the rich, the COLA system is a method for the government to divert monetary assistant to the poor instead of subsidizing the rich or worst still, being manipulated by the opportunist.