Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim delivering his maiden speech during the PKR Convention at Kinta Riverfront Ipoh. - RONNIE CHIN/The Star
IPOH: The government is looking into removing subsidies from only the top 10% of income earners, says Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
This would entail changing the classification of high-income earners that are exempt from subsidies from T15 to T10.
The Prime Minister said that the government is studying whether households between T15 and T10 would be able to cope without subsidies.
"The government is ready to consider changing the classification of groups that will be exempted from some of the subsidies from T15 to T10, which is the top 10% of earners.
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"There are parties who are angry, who say that for the T15, their income bracket is RM12,000.
"This has not been decided yet, because we want to see if they (T15) can cope (without subsidies)," he said in his speech at the Perak PKR state convention held at a hotel here on Sunday (Oct 27).
"If the T15 group could not cope, then we move it to T10 or increase the income bracket to be higher than RM12,000. Maybe the income bracket could be RM15,000 or even RM18,000 per month," he suggested.
Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, dismissed claims that the government is defining the T15 group as households with an income of RM12,000 or more.
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"The government has not finalised the income bracket of the T15 group which will be exempt from several government subsidies next year."
"However the opposition is defending the T15, when some of them earn RM100,000, and even RM1mil a month.
"The important thing is that at least 85% of Malaysians are not affected," he added.
In unveiling Budget 2025 on Oct 18, Anwar said there would not be any more education subsidies for members of the T15 community who enrol their children in fully residential schools and public higher education institutions.
Anwar had also said that targeted subsidies for RON95 petrol would be implemented in mid-2025 but added that 85% of the population would still receive them.
