Chong Chieng Jen
KUCHING (Nov 5): Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen has appealed for Sarawak to be exempted from the RON95 petrol targeted subsidy.
In his debate on Budget 2025 at the Dewan Rakyat today, he said Sarawak is a major oil producing state, whereby oil from Sarawak helps generate huge revenue for the federal government.
“In the recent years, it also helps generate massive revenue for the state government in terms of royalties and sales tax. Yet, the common Sarawakians do not get to enjoy the benefits of this natural resources from our own state.
“A lower pump price for RON95 is thus justifiable for Sarawakians in Sarawak. Therefore, it is my appeal that, at the very least, Sarawakians should enjoy a lower pump price in Sarawak,” he said.
He also touched on the Development Expenditure of RM5.9 billion allocated to Sarawak, which is a mere 6.8 per cent of the total RM86 billion Development Expenditure in Budget 2025.
He said with such a huge land size in Sarawak, which is 36 per cent of Malaysia’s total land size, surely Sarawak needs more development fund to catch up with the level of development between Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia.
“Even if we go by the population, Sarawak has a population of 2.9 million as of 2022, which is approximately 9 per cent of the total 32 million population in Malaysia.
“To be fair to Sarawak, the least percentage in development expenditure for Sarawak should be 9 per cent of the total development expenditure, which is RM7.74 billion. Therefore, we urge the government to work along that proportion in the development budget,” he said.
On another matter, Chong urged the federal government to abort the policy of imposing on employers to contribute to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for foreign workers.
He said many were shocked by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s announcement on the policy.
“EPF is for the purpose of one’s retirement fund. These foreign workers will not be retiring in Malaysia, which defeats the purpose of EPF for these foreign workers.
“Yet, this would mean an additional 12 per cent or 13 per cent costs to employers. It is thus the appeal of the employers that the government cancels such policy. I also share their view that the government should look after our own people and business sector rather than giving extra privileges to foreign workers,” he said.
However, Chong supported the increase of minimum wage to RM1,700, which would be implemented starting from February 1 next year for all employers except those having less than five employees, who will have to comply with this minimum wage rate starting from August 1.
He said while there were some who voiced out against this policy, statistics from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) clearly showed that our employees are way under-paid.
He said in the report released by the DOSM for the year 2023, the Compensation of Employees was only 33 per cent of Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP) while Gross Operating Surplus constituted 65 per cent of the GDP.
He said in most developed countries, the compensation of employees’ share of GDP surpasses 50 percent.
“These statistical figures, in layman’s terms, means that our employees are grossly underpaid. It is impossible to rely on market forces to rectify this imbalance because of the disparity in bargaining power between the employers and the employees.
“Thus, it is best that the Government steps in and regulate to increase the minimum wage rate so that employees have a fairer share of the economic pie of our count,” he said.
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