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Has Anwar abandoned Rafizi's RM85 million PADU?
savemalaysia
Publish date: Wed, 23 Oct 2024, 12:40 PM
The multi-million ringgit PADU system promoted by Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli may prove redundant as it appears to have no role to play in the government's plan to undertake a series of subsidy rationalisations, an analyst said.
This comes after PADU, the centralised database hub that Rafizi had touted as a "game changer" for distributing targeted subsidies based on a wide range of economic and social data from millions of Malaysians, was barely mentioned in the 2025 Budget presented by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Economist Amanda Yeo questioned the lack of update on PADU, which cost the government more than RM85 million to develop.
She compared the system to the MySejahtera app, which is now irrelevant after having played a major role in containing the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yeo said PADU could have been the go-to database as the government needs to categorise Malaysians by income levels in dishing out a series of new taxes and subsidy cuts.
"Ideally, PADU should be the way for the government to better categorise the rich, middle class and the poor but I don’t think the government is capable of dealing with the microeconomic level problem," said Yeo, a senior fellow at think tank Pacific Research Center.
She said the government seems to be obsessed with positive "macroeconomic indicators" such as higher GDP and foreign direct investment.
"But the people do not feel the good signs of it," she added.
Rafizi had passionately promoted PADU and urged Malaysians to enter their personal details into the database.
When the deadline passed on March 31 this year, he claimed that more than 10 million people had updated their financial and personal details.
Rafizi had refused to acknowledge criticism of PADU's weakness from various parties, including the GPS-led Sarawak government, which raised concerns over the security of personal data.
Senior government officials – including Anwar – had not openly come to Rafizi's defence when he was attacked by Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders over claims that the system was not secure.
In his budget speech last week, Anwar mentioned PADU only once, but it had nothing to do with the rationalisation of subsidies, the main reason for the database's development.
Instead, Anwar said data from PADU and other government agencies would be centralised in MyDigital ID, the identity authentication platform that acts as a virtual MyKad to handle secure online transactions.
Yeo raised the question of whether PADU was indeed a means for the government to obtain personal data of Malaysians, a concern that was raised by rights lawyers.
Meanwhile, economist Geoffrey Williams said data from PADU and the Inland Revenue Board should be able to identify those eligible for targeted subsidies, rather than introducing vaguely defined categories such as T15, which assumes that 15% of Malaysian households are top earners.
"T15 has not been properly defined and is generally taken as a household income measure. So a couple who both earn RM7,000 would be T15 together but M40 individually," said Williams.
https://www.malaysianow.com/news/2024/10/23/has-anwar-abandoned-rafizis-rm85-million-padu
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Discussions
Be the first to like this. Showing 15 of 15 comments
Really PADU, waste RM85 million on a useless database and want to cut RON95 fuel subsidy. So whose company or crony get this project?
4 weeks ago
Dont worry, whoever did their part as Malaysian citizen by registering in PADU will receive something when the fuel subsidy is removed later. Only those sour grapes are making noises here!!
4 weeks ago
Citizen has to disclose plenty of personal information in Padu. Some M40 won't do it simply for the purpose of getting few bucks subsidise from the government.
4 weeks ago
Theory of Comparative Advantage, Economic Linkages and International Trade has long proven track records and has transformed the world economy for centuries. The colonials exploited them to become developed nations through international trade and colonial outposts. Post colonialism, global south has benefited from these theories through WTO, FTAs, multi-lateral international trade etc.
Grants, Subsidies, Social Capital Redistribution, NEP etc aren't bad policies. They are tools that has been used and exploited for centuries by colonial masters, and subsequently copied by global south to better their economies. Look at US Midwest for example, USDA has pump in subsidies for decades and they have benefited the whole world because of economics of scale and distributed free food aid to whole world through USAID. They cap food costs and inflation. Midwest community is only less than 1% of US industries but supply whole USA and whole wide world. This is comparative advantage, not subsidy.
Malaysia is endowed with natural gas, petroleum etc and gave rise to Petronas. This is our natural endowment. It gave Malaysia comparative advantage and Petronas has led to Malaysia enjoying cheap electricity, fossil fuels etc. So long as Petronas continues to print huge amount of profits, and ensuring Malaysia electricity and fossil fuels remain cheap, that is not subsidy. Why??
Malaysia has this natural endowment or comparative advantage. Our policies has been extremely good. It gave us comparative advantage in many industries that has boomed over the decades from this natural endowment, not subsidy. Glove, glass, petrochemical, logistics industries sprouted because of cheap natural gas. Many industries sprouted because of cheap electricity. Data centres is amongst the latest. Another comparative advantage Malaysia has is human resources. Foreign actors exploit these poach our talents so that they can level the playing field to Malaysia disadvantage.
So long as the net wealth creation is greater than the so call subsidy by the nation, it is not subsidy like USA Midwest case.
Targeting B40, M40, T15, T20 is bad policies as not any one group would be happy being targeted. If the government felt that diesel, RON95 subsidies are a burden, then I don't think so, because Petronas dividends is greater than these subsidy from the policy. Because of foreign interference, they want to level the playing field because they have comparative disadvantage, then Malaysia should ignore them.
The best way to exit fossil fuel subsidy if the government thinks that's the way forward is the let the crude oil market does its work. When fuel oil was below USD20 per barrel last decade, Malaysia government could have exited the subsidy then and create zero damage to Malaysia industries and economy. So lets wait for the next crude oil market crash and plan this subsidy exit could be a way forward. Less damage to the economy, commnunity and political unity
4 weeks ago
On Sunday, Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli said the government was still refining the definition of the T15. He explained that it would not be based solely on gross household income, and the definition would take into account variables such as net household income, locality, and basic household spending for a reasonable quality of life, among others.
3 weeks ago
https://www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2024/10/24/higher-wages-but-higher-prices-too
higher wages = higher cost of living = 0 sum gain
kan speakup dah kata long time ago, u cannot simply simply raise salaries without increasing Productivity! otherwise cost of living naik also, is No gain actualy
3 weeks ago
Up productivity in caterpillar pace. Look at our education system and the mentality of top management in the business...the most efficient and easy way is to get cheap foreign workers as many as possible for Malaysian enjoying better life. Hahaha
3 weeks ago
China competes with US in tech, AI, robotic, nuke. We compete with cheap foreign labour s。How?
3 weeks ago
Without tech knowledge transfer, China is nothing.
They improvise on the parts using low quality material to produce cheap product.
It could not meddle with the critical engineering.
3 weeks ago
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