[UPDATED] Govt pivoting from old aid system to providing ‘fishing rod’ to people: Rafizi

AMPANG – Moving away from past economic conventions, the current government is determined to provide the proverbial “fishing rod” or long-term means to ensure the people are able to earn a decent living, according to Economic Affairs Minister Rafizi Ramli.

Rafizi said the government is moving away from merely giving one-off aid or blanket subsidies, and instead adopt a targeted approach to government aid while streamlining other public programmes to ensure that every ringgit spent will reach its intended target and provide the right impact.

The Pandan MP then stressed that it was unsustainable for the government to do otherwise due to the ballooning national debt of RM1.5 trillion.

Rafizi said he intends to push for structural reforms and ultimately provide long-term solutions, even if they are politically unpopular.

“We (the government) have this one window to do it (structural reforms). To do any structural reforms, there will be some pain in the beginning and enough that the gestation period (for any policy to bear any result) will be one or two years.

“So we do not want to repeat the acts of the past administration of trying to do quick fixes for immediate gains but prolong the structural issues,” he said during a press conference after launching Initiatif Pendapatan Rakyat (IPR) at the Cempaka LRT station here today.

IPR is an initiative under the Economic Affairs Ministry aimed at helping increase earnings for lower-income households and uplift people out of poverty.

The programme pairs public and private efforts to spur economic activities at the grassroot level.

Rafizi briefly explained that the government has already mapped out close to 200 different one-off cash aid or assistance initiatives by the federal government and now looks towards collecting the same data from the respective state governments.

He explained that this would allow the government to provide the right help to the right people while pairing families or individuals in need with the suitable government programme.

“We want to provide the people with the fishing rods they need through programmes like this (IPR) so they can open new doors and increase their earning capacities.

“At the same time, we want to streamline as many overlapping programmes as possible and one-off assistance so we can channel the amount of cash that we have to different groups that would have better outcomes in the future,” he said.

This follows the announcement of the unity government’s inaugural budget last Friday under Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s leadership, with a total of RM386.14 billion in allocations.

Grants announced during the supply bill’s tabling include financial aid of up to RM2,500 for B40 families and a two-percentage-point tax rebate for the M40 group.

Other key announcements include the introduction of luxury taxes – as opposed to reintroducing broad, consumption-based taxes such as the goods and services tax – and restructuring of Bumiputera investment organisations, incentives for employers, and development funds for Sabah and Sarawak. – The Vibes, February 26, 2023