Gerakan is concerned with the chain effect of price hike which is burning like wild fire in the market since the reduction of subsidy on a few controlled items such as sugar, diesel for selected vehicles, electricity and etc. According to latest news from the printing and transportation industry, there will be a considerable rate of price hike in both the industry due to subsidy cut on diesel and electricity.

Gerakan Deputy President Dato’ Chang Ko Youn said, “the government had announced that the price hike in electricity would not cause any price hike and the industry players should not take the opportunity to increase price for their services and products as the revised electricity tariff as well as the subsidy reduction is not too significant, however, what the people are seeing now is different from what was said by the government.”

“Although the government has urged businesses to not increase the pricing of their goods due to the scrapping of subsidy, yet, various industry players seem to be ignoring the words from government and went ahead with increasing the prices. Eventually, the one suffering woulds till be the end users and ordinary working class” says Dato’ Chang.

“What we are concerned is would cost of taking public transport be the next to hike due to the scrapping of subsidy for diesel,” Dato’ Chang added.

Dato’ Chang hopes that the government would have a mechanism to control the seemingly out of control chain effect of price hike throughout the market. Dato’ Chang also urged the government to do something to handle the impact of price hike on the ordinary people especially the low income group.

Dato’ Chang said, the purpose of having subsidy system is to help the poor and not subsidize the rich, it would be too much for the low income group to bear when subsidy for so many controlled items are being reduced. Instead of scrapping subsidy across the board, Dato’ Chang urged the government to come up with a mechanism which is designed to effectively transfer the subsidy to assist the poor without benefiting the rich. With this, not only can the government reduce the expenses incurred in subsidy, the government can also help reduce the burden of the low income group by continue providing the necessary subsidy.