_20240105124527_theedgemalaysia.jpg&w=1920&q=75)
SEPANG (Jan 5): The government has put in place sufficient control mechanisms to prevent airliners from submitting excess claims from Putrajaya under the RM599 base fares initiative during festive seasons, according to Transport Minister Anthony Loke.
“The government is very smart in spending money, don’t underestimate our intelligence that the airlines can easily manipulate the prices. It will not happen because, first of all, the prices are being monitored by Mavcom (Malaysian Aviation Commission), and you cannot just artificially increase the prices because they have an algorithm and they have some pricing mechanism,” the minister told reporters here after launching AirAsia’s one-way fixed low fares for Chinese New Year (CNY) on Friday (Jan 5).
“They (airliners) cannot just hike the price and then claim from the government. No, it will not happen that way. So, a thorough process, thorough audit will be put in place to check all the claims,” he added.
Loke said AirAsia has just submitted its report on sales under the RM599 subsidised price initiative during the Christmas season which spans Dec 22-24 last year, revealing that 5,000 passengers have benefitted from the initiative, involving a claim of about RM2 million, averaging to about RM400 subsidies per passenger over the three-day period.
“We have had a very thorough discussion between our aviation division and Mavcom. So, we have thought through the whole mechanism and we come up with this [initiative],” he said.
“The process is that, Mavcom has to get the report [from all airliners] before payment [from the government] is made [to airlines],” he added.
For the upcoming CNY season, the same subsidy will be applicable for travel period between Feb 7-8 this year.
Subsidies were squeezed out of savings, no additional allocation, says Loke
Loke also said this subsidised fare initiative will not involve additional allocation from the federal government to the Ministry of Transport, as it is funded by various sources of savings.
“We will have more revenue from some other sources which I will have a special press conference to announce that. We did not have additional allocation, if you check the Budget 2024, there is no specific allocation for this initiative, but we found a creative way to do it, that we have the funds to support this initiative and it will be sustainable,” he said.