KUALA LUMPUR: The government is expected to announce an increase in the paddy purchase floor price next week, along with additional subsidies to mitigate the impact on consumers.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu would table a ministerial paper to announce and clarify the floor price increase.
“The rise in the floor price will inevitably lead to an increase in rice prices for consumers. Our challenge is to balance this – while the price of paddy rises for farmers, we do not want to burden consumers,” he said.
“I have already discussed this with the Ministry of Finance to ensure the government will cover the subsidy, preventing an increase in local rice prices for consumers. The government will allocate an additional RM150 million over the next six months to support this effort, and the details will be finalised soon,” he said during Ministerial Question Time at the Dewan Rakyat.
Anwar was replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee (PN-Beluran), who had raised the issue of paddy farmers’ demand to raise the paddy purchase floor price to RM1,800 per metric tonne.
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