Rafizi suggests cash transfers for RON95 subsidy after Sara system glitch

Former economy minister Rafizi Ramli suggested that the government do cash transfers for the upcoming RON95 petrol subsidy rather than using the MyKad system to verify citizenship at petrol stations.

While commenting on the system breakdown during the distribution of Rahmah Necessities Aid (Sara), Rafizi said he had raised such concerns before.

"I have already voiced my concerns about using IC (identity cards) and so on.

"That's why I said from the beginning, the balance between cash transfers using Padu (Central Database Hub) for RM300, RM200, RM400 per month according to the suitability of the family and the operational difficulties of implementing something like this IC, it's better to do cash transfers," he said on the latest episode of his "Yang Berhenti Menteri" podcast last night.

On Sept 1, the Finance Ministry announced that the payment terminal system for the Sara aid distribution, which operated through the MyKasih network, was experiencing significant slowdowns at various locations due to a surge in transactions.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced the aid last month - the amount of which is credited into the MyKad of over 22 million Malaysians aged 18 and above.

Commenting on this, Rafizi said the government had rolled out the RM100 one-off financial aid for political capital and to gain popular support from Malaysians.

However, he said the system breakdown "defeated the purpose" as people would remember only the difficulty in accessing the aid and not the money itself.

Petrol subsidy

As for the petrol subsidy, Rafizi wondered aloud what would happen if a system breaks down while people are lining up at petrol stations.

"Imagine after this, having to line up and use the (identity) card to validate is another issue.

"But what if the system goes down? Not enough bandwidth, or the card reader isn't working?

"So I hope that these are among the things, as what happened with Sara (aid), that must also be taken into account by the government in any form of implementing the RON95 (subsidy) later," he said.

Finance Minister II Amir Hamzah Azizan had said that further details on the RON95 subsidy would be announced by the end of this month.

He said the government was mulling mechanisms such as the use of MyKad, e-wallets, and oil company apps.

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