Dewan Rakyat Passes Supplementary Supply Bill (2024) 2025

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (Bernama) -- Dewan Rakyat has passed the Supplementary Supply (2024) Bill 2025, allowing provisions of an amount not exceeding RM20,191,299.50 from the Consolidated Fund for additional expenditure on services in 2024.

The bill was tabled by Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan and passed with a majority voice vote after being debated by both government and opposition members of Parliament.

This supplementary expenditure is requested for allocations to the Treasury’s General Services amounting to RM12,624,721,830, allocations to the Statutory Fund (RM3,151,419,300), the Ministry of Education (RM1,763,672,170), the Public Service Department (RM1,148,146,080), and the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (RM1,077,146,050).

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The allocations also include the Ministry of Higher Education (RM417,999,870) and the Election Commission (RM8,194,200).

Earlier, during the winding up of the bill’s debate, Amir Hamzah said that the government had spent over RM70 billion on subsidies, incentives, and assistance in 2024, which exceeds the original Budget 2024 estimate of RM58 billion.

He said that accommodating additional subsidy requirements on petroleum products, specifically RON95, diesel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), was among the reasons for the increase in expenditure.

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“Budget 2024 was prepared based on the assumption of targeted diesel and RON95 subsidies being implemented in early 2024,” he said.

Amir Hamzah added that rescheduling the targeted subsidies is a major contributor to the government covering an additional commitment of RM12.1 billion compared to the original estimate for petroleum product subsidies of RM18.52 billion.

He said the mechanism for targeting RON95 petrol subsidies to be implemented is in line with the electricity and diesel targeted subsidies, which involves a tiered pricing system.

Amir Hamzah elaborated that the approach used in the targeted electricity subsidy involved charging higher electricity tariffs for users with higher consumption, while the diesel subsidy targeting established the retail selling price at the pump without subsidies, currently at RM3.18 per litre.

“The subsidy will target eligible sectors such as logistics vehicles using fleet cards to purchase diesel at the subsidised price of RM2.15, which is RM1.00 lower per litre, while eligible consumers will receive cash assistance under BUDI MADANI,” he said.

Meanwhile, during the bill’s winding up debate, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Federal Territories) Dr Zaliha Mustaka said 1.8 million citizens had registered for MyDigital ID as of January 2025, with a target of 15 million users by July this year.

The minister said that to achieve this target, the government is implementing strategic measures, including integrating government application systems, establishing public servant registration as a key performance indicator (KPI), and considering incentives and subsidies for users.

“To date, 10 applications have been integrated, 12 are still in process, another 12 are in planning, and eight are still being evaluated,” she said.

Additionally, Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali, while concluding the bill’s debate for his ministry, said that he plans to present the implementation of the Cooking Oil Price Stabilisation Scheme (eCOSS) to the Parliamentary Special Select Committee for more in-depth feedback before bringing it to the Cabinet.

He emphasised that the eCOSS system is crucial for monitoring the supply of subsidised packaged cooking oil to ensure there are no leakages.

The Dewan Rakyat session will resume tomorrow.

-- BERNAMA