PARLIAMENT | Putrajaya is considering an increase in the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) due to climbing fuel prices, according to Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani.

This will be made possible as the government will see a revenue increase with rising global fuel prices.

"Every increase of US$1 per barrel of the fuel price will benefit the government as its revenue will increase approximately RM300 million," he told Dewan Rakyat during the winding up of 2018 Budget debate.

However, Johari did not elaborate on whether the government will increase the amount of the cash handout or the number of recipients.

In this year’s budget, it was announced that the government will persist with the RM1,200 BR1M handout for seven million recipients.

"The average price of fuel is US$52 per barrel now, if the price increases to US$62 per barrel in average by December 2018, then we will have RM3 billion in additional revenue," he added.

"It is highly possible that we can consider increasing BR1M. However, this increase will not permanent, as we may reduce it once (the fuel price) drops," he said.

"In 2008, the global fuel price exceeded US$140 and on average, we were at US$115 per barrel, and BR1M had not existed and our fuel price was RM2.70," he said. 

Johari also brushed off criticism that the fuel price is the main contributor to inflation.

"When the petrol price increases, so does the headline inflation, but our core inflation remained stable. In the past four years, our core inflation remained at 2.5 percent, while the headline inflation was four percent," he said. 

Since the implementation of the managed float system, he said the country has recorded 19 hikes and 12 drops in petrol price. 

"The total increase for the 19 hikes is 75 sen, while a total decrease of 74 sen was recorded for the 12 price drops. As such, the impact is one sen," he said.