KUALA LUMPUR: The government is considering giving an additional 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) if the government were to gain more revenue from rising oil prices, the Dewan Rakyat was told yesterday.

Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Johari Abdul Ghani said the additional BR1M was aimed at easing the burden of the low-income group following the oil price hike.

“If the government gets more revenue from increased oil prices, we can use the extra income to help the low-income group such as BR1M recipients.

“Most likely, we can consider extra BR1M,” he said when winding up the debate for his ministry on the Supply Bill 2018.

Responding to a question from Datuk Seri Ahmad Hamzah (BN-Jasin) on the revenue earned from higher oil prices, Johari said the additional BR1M would not be a permanent feature. Johari said for every US$1 per barrel increase in world crude oil price, the government would earn an additional income of about RM300 million.

To a question from Nga Kor Ming (DAP-Taiping) on the impact of the managed oil price float system, Johari said since its introduction, the impact on consumers was only one sen.

“Since then, fuel prices dropped 12 times by 74 sen and rose 19 times by 75 sen. The total impact is only one sen,” he said.

To a question from Oscar Ling Chai Yew (DAP-Sibu) and Ong Kian Ming (DAP-Serdang) on unclaimed monies from 1977 until September this year, Johari said they amounted to RM9.06 billion.

Of the amount, RM1.64 billion was paid back to the owners and RM1.46 billion was transferred to the Consolidated Revenue Account, he added. — Bernama