‘Government knows best’? Malaysia has a problem with explaining its policies

Malaysians were up in arms, as expected, after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the government’s plan to cut access to generous petrol subsidies for the rich and non-citizens by mid-2025.

Anwar said it was high time the country’s rich start paying their fair share, as his administration seeks to save on costly blanket subsidies and make sure assistance is extended to only those who truly need it.

An admirable goal, and a necessary move to cut back on the government’s annual spending, which has routinely exceeded revenue since the economic crash of the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s.

The problem, though, is in the details, or rather the lack thereof.

In his 2025 Budget speech on October 18, the prime minister said the country’s top 15 per cent of income earners, or T15, would no longer qualify for petrol subsidies. The move should save about 8 billion ringgit (US$1.9 billion) while the government continues to maintain a 12 billion ringgit bill to subsidise the bulk of drivers nationwide.

Households with a combined monthly income of 13,295 ringgit will cross the minimum threshold to enter the T15 group, as calculated by Malaysia’s statistics department in 2022.