Although fuel subsidies were supposed to have been abolished as part of the government’s subsidy rationalisation plan in 2014, Treasury Secretary-General Irwan Serigar revealed that subsidies are still ongoing.

This is to keep price increases in check as the weekly fuel prices are being adjusted, he said, although the amount subsidised is not as much as the pre-2014 subsidies.

“Although we have the fuel price mechanism, there is still having some subsidy in there. The government still subsidises.

“Sometimes we don’t want to burden the rakyat too much, so we subside for certain periods when it goes up, we subsidise a bit. I think we still (subsidise) a few hundred million per month,” he said when fielding questions at a post-budget dialogue organised by the Malaysian Economic Association in Kuala Lumpur today...