Villagers in Ulu Baram in remote northern Sarawak have to pay a lot to use hired vehicles to travel to Miri as seen here.
MIRI: The newly-minted Federal Cabinet has been urged to look into increasing fuel transportation subsidy for rural Sarawak.
Sarawak deputy state assembly speaker Datuk Gerawat Gala said this was one of the most urgent needs in the rural parts of the state and required attention.
“The very high cost of transportation in rural Sarawak now is due to the high cost of petrol and diesel in the interior.
“This is because the previous Federal Government had cut down transportation subsidy in the last Budget.
“With the change in Federal Government, I hope the new Cabinet will immediately increase the transportation subsidy to reduce the cost of travel for rural folk,” he said.
Gala, who is Mulu assemblyman, said there was a lot of uncertainty among rural folk following the change of Government in Putrajaya.
“During Barisan Nasional’s administration, Sarawak was given a lot of allocations as well as a big transportation subsidy for sending essential food, petrol and diesel fuel, cooking gas and cement to rural settlements.
“The state is the largest in the country in terms of size, the biggest contributor to the national income in several key economic sectors and also among those worst hit by the high cost of living.
“When Pakatan Harapan took over (in 2018) they cut the subsidy by a lot and caused a lot of hardship for us.
“We rural natives want the new Government to make sure more subsidy is given to Sarawak,” he said.
Gala was commenting on complaints from rural folk in ulu Baram hit hard by exorbitant transportation charges, forcing them to fork out hundreds of ringgit just to go to Miri.
Gala said previously, RM200mil was allocated annually to subsidise the cost of transporting petrol and diesel into rural Sarawak to make sure the market price was the same as urban Sarawak.
However, the budget for this was slashed to about RM30mil per year in 2018.
Gala said this reduction in transport subsidy meant the market cost of fuel would shoot up and thereby increase the cost of travelling in hired vehicles between rural villages and urban areas.
