PUTRAJAYA: The proposed bills on the merger between the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) and the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) will be tabled in Parliament soon, says Anthony Loke (pic).
The Transport Minister said both the Mavcom Act (Repeal) 2024 Bill and CAAM Act 2017 (Amendment) Bill would be tabled sometime during the second Meeting of the Third Session of the 15th Parliament, which is set to run from June 24 to Aug 1.
Once passed, Loke said the bills would see Mavcom and all its staff gradually integrated into CAAM over the course of multiple months sometime next year, which will have new departments set up to accommodate the changes.
“With this, there will only be one single agency for both technical approval and licence issuance.
“This aims to reduce the amount of red tape while improving the effectiveness and efficiency of civil aviation service delivery, especially when it comes to licensing.
“This will also help optimise existing human and financial resources by combining economics and technical experts in a single entity, which will help ensure our civil aviation meets national and international standards,” he told reporters at the Transport Ministry here yesterday.
Loke said the merger will not have any financial implications for the government, which has already laid out plans for CAAM to be financially self-sustaining beginning next year.
“Mavcom is currently funded entirely through regulatory service charges, but the plan is for CAAM to become an independent statutory body next year after absorbing Mavcom,” he added.
On the subject of diesel subsidies, Loke said the Tourism, Arts and Culture Ministry (Motac) will handle possible subsidies for tourism-related sectors, including tour buses.
“Our current diesel subsidies are aimed solely at logistics relating to consumer goods that might negatively affect the cost of living of consumers.
“As possible tourism diesel subsidies are related to the industry costs themselves and not consumer goods, it falls onto Motac to help industry players make the transition,” he said.
For similar reasons, Loke also said there were currently no plans to provide diesel subsidies for vehicles in the construction industry.
