The day Najib stop lying will be on his precious son death bed
‘Stop lies on sugar subsidy cut’
The sugar subsidy cut was not for health concerns, but for financial reasons, claims DAP MP.
KUALA LUMPUR: Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua has accused Putrajaya of misleading the public on the real reason behind the removal of the sugar subsidy, as announced during Budget 2014 last Friday.
The DAP MP today claimed the government had abolished the sugar subsidy of 34 sen as the then Domestic Trade Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Ismail Sabri had signed a three-year contract in 2012 to import raw sugar at an exorbitant price of US$26 per 100lbs.
“The real reason why the people are forced to enjoy sugar at a high price is because the government had signed an agreement to import raw sugar which is priced too highly,” Pua said in a statement here.
“If we consider the current international price of raw sugar, which is US$18.91 for every 100lbs, the government would not only be free from allocating subsidies (for sugar), moreover the price of sugar (in Malaysia) will be cheaper than the current rate of RM2.84 per kilo,” he added.
Pua said he had issued a critical statement during the signing of the contract in 2012 as the government had bought raw sugar at a higher rate than the market price then, of US$23.42.
“The difference in contract price was 10% of market price and resulted in the government having to bear a loss of RM64 million each year,” he explained.
“At that time, I had warned the government of international analysis reports which predicted that the price of sugar will drop due to excessive supply,” he said.
“However, this was ignored by the government. In fact, then International Trade and Industry deputy minister Mukhriz Mahathir said in parliament that the price of sugar was predicted to increase in future,” he added.
Pua then disclosed that the international price of raw sugar has dropped to as low as US$16.70 per 100lbs in September 2013.
“This means the government had bought sugar at a price 55.7% higher than the new market rate,” he said.
He acknowledged that the price of sugar has since increased to US$18.91, but said: “It is still far cheaper than the government’s import price”.
“Based on the market rate, the government has paid an excess of RM194 million each year for the import of 2.73 billion pounds of sugar,” he said.
Pua urged the government to explain its policies on sugar import and publicly admit the real reason for slashing the sugar subsidy.
“The government must admit their wrongdoing, investigate why raw sugar was imported at a higher rate and announce what corrective action is to be taken so similar problems would not happen in future.”
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