SHAH ALAM, August 21: Consumers have been reminded to not be surprised if the Umno-BN government moves to increase the prices of essential goods, including petrol, in the 2014 Budget which will be presented by the Prime Minister in October.
According to the Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Utara, Tony Pua, the increase is expected to occur due to the worsening situation of government funds because of the Umno-BN government’s failure to take strong measures to curb corruption, wastage and leakages in its administration.
“I think that the prices of essential goods such as sugar, cooking oil, petrol and so on, will increase in the budget which will be presented soon by the Prime Minister.
“I think this is happening because the government did not strong measures to overcome the problem of corruption, wastage, leakages, and measures to not carry out the open tender system in government projects have caused the government to not have sufficient funds for the needs of public welfare.
“People will have no choice but to adopt a more economical lifestyle like having to downgrade vehicles and take other measures thought to be necessary,” said Pua to TVSelangor today.
However, according to Pua, such things will not happen to Umno-BN leaders and their cronies who will be able to continue their lavish lifestyle when they are directly awarded government projects.
“What is happening now is a result of uncontrolled spending. We can see that this is not because we lack income. In fact, government revenues have been increasing dramatically over the past 10 years. However, it is still pressed in terms of the deficit I mentioned earlier,” he added.
Last July, the Chairman of Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB), Tan Sri Leo Moggi, indicated the possibility of an impending electricity tariff increase because of the government’s move to reduce subsidies for electricity.
However, Moggi claimed that the increase will be decided by the government.
Recently, the proposed electricity tariff increase almost became a reality when the President and the Chief Executive Officer of TNB, Azman Mohd, was quoted from Berita Harian confirming the increase in electricity tariffs.