Kudos to the prime minister for ensuring ‘Rakyat Didahalukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan’ in Budget 2015. Grappling with the rising cost of living takes a toll on the country’s citizens at large, as fulfilling mere necessities in itself becomes an a challenging task. Considering this, Budget 2015 signifies a proactive effort by the government to spur societal well-being via a string of measures intended to ease cost pressures facing the middle and lower-income groups.

Indeed, subsidy rationalisation has a far-reaching impact across the supply chain and fears loom as daily essentials will become costlier. Often, leaving the middle and lower-income groups in an unintended lurch. As it goes, traders and retailers conveniently profiteer by squarely blaming it on price hikes at source which are always difficult to track as cost components vary across industries.

In the wake of the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) next year, it is also welcomed that the government is further strengthening enforcement units while empowering thousands of consumers and civil society groups to monitor profiteering activity by unscrupulous traders.

The Perak Consumer Movement (PCM) strongly believes that concerted enforcement activity is the key to successful implementation of GST and it should start now. PCM’s own members are already monitoring retail price movement across the board.

Although it was not entirely unanticipated, the income tax relief, increased Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BRIM) and other support allocation announced will definitely go a long way to help cushion the inflationary impact which predominantly follows suit at a time when subsidy rationalisation efforts are under way.

While the PCM supports the government's intent to gradually remove other subsidies which drains the country of its finances and subsequent socioeconomic growth, it is also crucial that the government simultaneously implements effective sustainable initiatives to cushion the inevitable consequences of price rise, especially on low-income and middle-income consumers.

Measures announced in the Budget are a good start but increased tax percentage must be levied on the high-income earners, a strategy which is glaringly missing from the Budget announcement.

In the larger scale, our concern centres on the widening economic and social disparity which would likely benefit only certain segments to leverage on the country's wealth, as opposed to the wider Malaysian population. More importantly, the realisation of a developed nation hinges on a healthy economy for which consumerism cannot be compromised.

Middle-income group is the key driver

In order to sustain domestic consumption, realistically the government needs to put more money into the pockets of the middle-income group. A strong and healthy middle income group with wide spending power will contribute towards a robust domestic economy growth. The middle-income group is after all the key driver in achieving our aspiration of a developed nation status by 2020.

The government has a responsibility to explore way to support and grow our country’s middle-income population.

The  BRIM initiative has seen a gradual increase since it was first announced to support the lower-income population but more must be done for the middle-income group. Other holistic options must be explored to uphold social security.

PCM is confident that consumers will understand, appreciate and accept the government's subsidy rationalisation policy if the above which largely echoes the voice of Malaysian consumers is carefully considered and actioned upon.

DARSHAN SINGH is president, Perak Consumer Movement.