Second finance minister Amir Hamzah Azizan said the monthly RM200 cash aid was determined after studying diesel usage data as well as data from the statistics department.

The Budi Madani programme complements the government’s existing efforts to roll out a targeted diesel subsidy through the domestic trade and cost of living ministry’s MySubsidi Diesel system.

Eligible individual owners of diesel vehicles, including small farmers and plantation smallholders, will receive RM200 per month.

In a Bernama report, Amir Hamzah said the targeted subsidy implementation fulfills the three focus areas in the Madani economy framework: expanding the nation’s revenue, enhancing the people’s well-being, and boosting the country’s governance to make it more efficient.

“If we can reduce existing leakages, the nation’s revenue will rise and we can use it to benefit the people in terms of infrastructure, healthcare and education,” he said.

Amir Hamzah said the diesel subsidy payout, which was only RM1.4 billion in 2019, had swelled tenfold to RM14.4 billion last year.

He said the estimated RM4 billion in savings from the diesel subsidy rationalisation is expected to give the government larger fiscal space to raise the quality of various public services.

More than 30,000 applicants, including farmers and small-scale commodity growers, have been approved for the receipt of cash subsidy assistance under the Budi Madani programme as of yesterday.

In a statement, the finance ministry said recipients would receive the RM200 directly into their bank accounts from June 10.

The registration for the Budi Madani programme opened on May 28.