• 8 hours ago
At a dialogue session at Universiti Pertahanan Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur on Friday (Nov 1), Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dismissed comparisons to "Robin Hood" following his recent introduction of subsidy rationalisation for the higher income group, known as the T15 group, after tabling of Budget 2025.

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Transcript
00:00I don't want to talk about justice, social justice, and this society being separated from the rule of law.
00:09That's why we introduce subsidy funding.
00:12We call it T10 or T15.
00:16It means that the rich people should pay a little more.
00:20We are now subsidizing, giving subsidies, round 95, round 96, we are subsidizing.
00:25Students who ride a motorbike should be subsidized.
00:29Even a taxi driver should be subsidized.
00:33Nothing personal.
00:35It doesn't mean that we should pay extra.
00:40We should pay without subsidies.
00:43That's all we do.
00:45It means that we give subsidies to 85% of the population.
00:51The 15% that we are subsidizing,
00:55maybe 13,000, is a little too low.
00:59We want to raise it even more.
01:01But the RM100,000 a month,
01:03the RM1 million a month,
01:06but if you listen to the parliament,
01:08I hear that it's not enough.
01:10There are more parliament members who are talking about subsidizing RM3,000 to RM15,000
01:14compared to the people below,
01:16M40, B40, and the T20 below.
01:21So, I think it's unfair.
01:23What do you mean by anti-rich people?
01:26I'm not anti-rich people.
01:28I'm just saying, if you are rich, don't go and get subsidies.
01:32If you are rich, pay for it.
01:34If you go to a government hospital,
01:38your income is RM100,000 a month.
01:41Pay a little.
01:44If you go to a university,
01:47for example, UPNM,
01:49if your father's income is RM100,000 a month,
01:54would you be patient to get a little more?
01:58A little more.
02:00It doesn't mean that everyone is a sponsor.
02:02I think you should be patient.
02:04Is that discriminating? No.
02:06Because he can afford it.
02:07Does it burden him to pay a high fee?
02:09No.
02:10Pay in installments.
02:12If you want to assist and care for the poor,
02:23we must have adequate resources.
02:26We inherit a huge debt of close to RM1.5 trillion.
02:33We don't want to tax the people.
02:35So, we tax a little, the very rich,
02:39and we withdraw subsidy to the very rich.
02:42That is essentially the philosophy,
02:45the economic philosophy of,
02:47people say it's Robin Hood,
02:49taking from the rich, giving to the poor.
02:51It's not even Robin Hood.
02:52It's just withdrawing the subsidy,
02:55which means we, Malaysia,
02:57happens to be one of the few countries in the world
03:00with the highest subsidy
03:02and the least tax base,
03:05smallest tax base.
03:09For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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