Posts Tagged ‘Economy’

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Ration Cards for the poor?

July 2nd, 2010
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Those who are familiar with India will know about ration cards (or ration stamps). Its a method whereby folks can buy essential items at controlled prices.

The MHS (Penang Branch) is proposing a similar system in Malaysia.

Maybe in Malaysia, can implement using our MyKads. Set up “ration offices” or counters” at strategic location or make use of the existing shops by equipping them with MyKad readers.

The Penang branch of the Malaysian Hindu Sangam (MHS) wants the government to issue ration cards for essential commodities for the hardcore poor to help them cope with the rapidly rising cost of living.

Association deputy chairperson cum its social and welfare sub-committee chairperson P Murugiah told Malaysiakini that prices of essential foods items like rice, cooking oil , sugar and milk have jumped a mind-boggling 200 percent compared to 10 years ago.

He cited cases of mothers who, unable to breastfeed their new-born babies, opt for water mixed with sugar or condensed milk; young children dropping out of schools to work to help the family and those unable to settle their electricity and water bills, turning to oil lamps.

The hardcore poor survive on only one meal a day and that too non-nutritious food of either roti canai or nasi lemak.

He claimed that a some single mothers have been driven by financial desperation to vice to support their children .

He quoted the prices of some food like cheap fish which used to be between 30 sen to 50 sen per 600 gms about 10 years ago, now go for RM2 per 600 gms, ikan billis price has soared 300 percent, a loaf of bread once RM1, is now RM3 , eggs that cost 10 sen each now go for between 25-30 sen.

Murugiah (left) said the government should consider emulating measures taken by India to alleviate the plight of the poorest through ration cards.

The BPL or below the poverty line ration card is issued to the head of an Indian family whose total earnings is below Rs10,000 per annum (RM700) while those categorised above the poverty line (APL) with a total family income of more than Rs10,000 are each issued a white ration card annually.

A ration card is a very useful document as it helps save money by aiding in the procurement of essential commodities at subsidised rates.

According to Murugiah, the hardcore poor in India are entitled to free essential items every month.

On the government’s plan to phase out all subsidies because of depleting public funds, Murugiah criticised Putrayaja for wasting public funds on mega projects that brought little benefit to the public, especially those in the lower income group.

“The government’s top priority should be to ensure a social safety net for its citizens rather than building public monuments which are a waste of tax-payers’ money.

On its part the Penang MHS, through public donations, is providing monthly food rations to poor families comprising 32 Malays, 22 Indians and 10 Chinese.

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Minimum Wage plan postponed due to low blog feedback!

June 23rd, 2010
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I’m not sure if Malaysian Insider wrote this story correctly, because the answers just don’t seem to gel. Why did the blog generate only 77 response? You can try searching in MOHR website and let me know if can find any link to the blog because I certainly can’t find it. Maybe the blog is hidden somewhere? Found the blog here but the poll is closed!

Secondly, we are talking about minimum wage for “LOW INCOME” workers. Can a blog be the best to tool to gauge their response? Our broadband penetration still not over 40%, and people not really have MOHR website bookmarked.

Or is the blog meant for employers and the middle/high income employees to respond?

I think there should have been other ways to get response from target group. Could have paper-based survey during many of the goverment events like 1Malaysia youth program at Bukit Jalil, concerts, by-election areas, and so on. definitely would have got more than 77 replies.

They could have even talked to Income Tax department to include a survey when employees file their returns via e-filing in April. If just 30% of 1 million tax payers responded, you’ll get 300,000 responses!

Pity the security guards.

Despite strong calls from many quarters, including the MCA, the government announced today that it was shelving a minimum wage policy due to poor public feedback.

Human Resources deputy minister Datuk Maznah Mazlan told Parliament that the government had only received a total of 77 responses from the public since March this year.

“The ministry launched its blog on March 24 this year to obtain feedback from Malaysians on the proposal to introduce minimum wages.

“Until today, the ministry has only obtained 77 responses,” she said when replying to a question by Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang),

Maznah said that of the 77 responses, 70 or 91 per cent agreed with the proposal, about three per cent disagreed and 6 per cent were indifferent.

“The feedback is too small for us to implement the policy, especially in comparison with the over 11 million workers in the labour force nationwide.

“It is not representative of the number of workers,” she said.

She added that the ministry would continue with its blog to obtain more feedback as well as to organise a three-party workshop in mid-July this year involving workers’ associations, employers associations, academics and government agencies.

“Whatever feedback we obtain from the blog and the workshop will be used as input for the government’s consideration,” she said.

In a supplementary question, Charles slammed the ministry for deferring its decision to introduce minimum salaries for security personnel to 2011 although it was set to begin on July 1 this year.

“It is important for the nation. The government had decided to introduce the policy but suddenly, this was a retracted.

“This is like one step forward and three steps back. From what I have read from the news, I see that this shows that the government is afraid of the private sector, especially the security firms that have been urging the government not to introduce the policy,” he said.

Charles asked if the government had the “political will” to introduce minimum wages for the country, especially in view of the New Economic Model’s target of achieving a high-income status for the country.

In her response, Maznah said that the Cabinet had on January 13 this year instructed the ministry to study the proposal to introduce minimum wages.

“For your information, your accusation that we are frightened of the private sector and that we have no political will — this is just a perception typical of the opposition.

“The introduction of minimum wages involves many processes and many ministries. It involved the communication between the ministries and other important parties like the workers unions and other associations,” she said.

Maznah pointed out that a single policy could not be used for all sectors.

“We need to have a proper, detailed study, which would include making comparisons to other countries as well,” she said.

In another supplementary question, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (PAS-Kuala Selangor) asked Maznah for the ministry’s plans in improving the wages of the labour force.

“About 40 per cent of the labour force earn less than RM1,500 monthly and 75 per cent of them are the bumiputras from Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.

Maznah said that the 10th Malaysia Plan programmes provide ways and means to improve the welfare of the labour force.

“We are also looking into ways and means on how to lessen our dependence on foreign labour as well as how to improve the skilled workers force.

“Our target is to raise our 25 per cent of skilled workers in the workforce to at least 50 per cent,” she said.

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PPP proposal on discount for house buyers

June 23rd, 2010
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This is one of the better things to come out from PPP in recent memory. As house prices are inflated and artificially increased over last one year, many people will find it difficult to buy a house. Imagine if 25-30 years ago, you can buy a double-storey house with your salary of RM2000 or less, now its a mini miracle if you can even get such a house for below RM300,000 in Klang Valley. Most are priced upwards of RM400,000 already. So, can someone earning RM4000 or so buy such a house? Considering increased food cost, need for own transport, petrol cost and telco bills, can forget it la.

People’s Progressive Party (PPP) president Datuk M. Kayveas has suggested that non-Bumiputeras earning an income of less than RM3,000 be given a 10 per cent discount currently enjoyed by Bumiputera house buyers.

He said a Bumiputera house buyer received a 10 per cent discount, irrespective of the person’s financial capability, whereas a non-Bumiputera house buyer needed to pay that 10 per cent.

“In this way, it is believed that every citizen will be more confident on the implementation of the quota and status system,” he said in his policy speech at the PPP’s 57th annual general meeting here today.

The meeting was opened by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The other parties should come out in support of this proposal. Would they?

Also, I think houses priced about RM500,000 should not be given any discounts.

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Malaysian use 400 litres of petrol yearly

May 24th, 2010
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Do you wonder why we use so much petrol? Maybe the nature of our jobs and social life that requires travelling, plus possibly one of the worst transport systems around? Is it because we are working too hard, with out cities staying awake nearly 20 hours a day? Could it be the large number of sedans and MPVs? Since the report below says 71% of the subsidy is consumed by middle to high income level groups (meaning earning more than RM2500 per month), obviously this also means that it is being used by the group that also contribute considerably to the country.  Would slashing subsidies seen as punishing the “more” contributing groups?

I think there should be an effort to improve the public transportation radically. Just imagine, from Puchong, I can’t find a direct bus going to Klang, Subang, Shah Alam, USJ, Putrajaya, Cyberjaya, Kajang, Serdang, Sri Kembangan or Sunway. Need to take a litany of trips which extends the travel time tremendously. The RapidKL bus goes from Puchong Utama or Puchong Perdana to KL via Old Klang Road, while there’s a bus from Putrajaya to Kelana Jaya that traverses the LDP. What kind of unintelligent arrangement is this? Is it a wonder then that our highways are choked daily? I think we need more than 1000 buses to immediately connect adjacent towns and suburbs in Klang Valley.

For the record, I took bus from Puchong to Central Market, and then took another bus to Section 15 Shah Alam. That’s like traveling in a V shape. If I drove, would have taken me a 20 minutes 20km journey (one way). By taking bus, it took me 2 hours and distance of 50km (one way). Go figure.

Malaysians are one of the highest fuel consumers in the region where even price increases have not deterred motorists.

Since 2004, they have consumed more than 400 litres per capita annually, which is much more than Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, China and India. Singapore, which was ranked second among the list of six countries, only consumed 250 litres per capita in 2007.

India and China consumed under 50 litres per capita in 2007, according to data collated from the Finance Ministry, Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry, International Energy Agency and Global Insight.

Even with fuel prices at its highest in mid-2008, when petrol was at RM2.70 and diesel at RM2.58 per litre, consumption still grew by 8% annually and almost 20 billion litres are expected to be consumed by the end of 2010.

As Malaysia practises a blanket subsidy on fuel, data made available to the Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu) subsidy rationalisation lab showed that 71% of fuel subsidy was enjoyed by the middle to high-income level groups.

Some 28% of those enjoying fuel subsidy earn more than RM5,000 per month, while 43% earned between RM2,500 and RM5,000.

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Malaysia in top 10 competitive country list

May 20th, 2010
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Another good news for the government!

Malaysia’s competitiveness ranking surged into the top 10 in the world as Asian countries took the first two spots after financial turmoil and an economic crisis saw previous leader, the United States, slipping to third place.

Malaysia’s competitiveness ranking rose to 10th, from 18th a year earlier, as the country benefited from strong demand from Asia as well as implementation of efficient policies, especially government policies, said the latest IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook 2010.

“The quantum leap in Malaysia’s competitiveness ranking marks a strong recognition of investors accorded to the Government’s commitment to reshape the country’s competitive landscape,” said CIMB Investment Bank chief economist Lee Heng Guie.

“This improved ranking bodes well for Malaysia to drive for higher private investments and FDIs.”

IMD said Singapore, ranked as the most competitive economy, and Hong Kong displaced the United States off the perch as the two Asian countries displayed great resilience through the recent economic and financial crisis.

Malaysia, which is now ranked the fifth most competitive country in Asia Pacific, scored highly in business and government efficiency.

The rankings are tabulated based on four main criteria; economic performance, government efficiency, business efficiency and infrastructure.

Economists said the jump in ranking is a reflection of the work the Government has put into improving the country’s overall business and economic climate.

“It also demonstrates the Government’s handling of the global crisis by introducing measures to stabilise the economy,” said Affin Investment Bank economist Alan Tan.

The New Economic Model, the Government Transformation Programme and the Economic Transformation Programme are among the key initiatives that the Government introduced lately to improve the overall business and government environment in the country.

Economists said the improvement in Malaysia’s ranking was also due to the perception investors surveyed had of the country, and the challenge now is to translate the jump in ranking into more investments, both foreign and local.

“Being more competitive is positive for the country. It will have some influence on decision-makers,” said Maybank Investment Bank Bhd head of research Andrew Lee.

“What the Government needs to do is to continue with the Government Transformation Programme and make it known to the outside world that this is happening.”

IMD said for 2010, the challenge for Malaysia was to continuously improve the government delivery system to facilitate business, strengthen the economy through high quality investments, groom small and medium enterprises for global competition, continue to intensify life-long learning and nurture a talented workforce and drive productivity and competitiveness through a creative and innovative mindset.

Lee said that given the more intense and unpredictable environment ahead, policymakers need to quicken the momentum of change to sustain or raise Malaysia’s position ahead of the global competition.

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