KUALA LUMPUR: An opposition member of parliament (MP) today asked for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to be referred to the Parliamentary Rights and Privileges Committee over a remark the latter made about the alleged RM10 billion diesel subsidy misappropriation.
Hulu Terengganu MP Datuk Rosol Wahid said he had submitted a letter on the matter to the Dewan Rakyat speaker yesterday, claiming that Anwar had misled the Dewan Rakyat.
"His (Anwar's) speech during the tabling of the 2023 Budget on Feb 23 contained statements that may mislead the Dewan Rakyat and can be seen as insulting Parliament.
"He said there were diesel subsidy leakages of RM10 billion a year, when the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry said it had seized RM18.7 million (worth of subsidised diesel) between 2018 and 2022.
"And the minister only just said it would form a task force to investigate the RM10 billion leakage," he said in the Dewan Rakyat.
Rosol said in another answer given by the minister the day after the tabling of the budget, the ministry was only starting to collect data on the issue.
"There are contradictions with the data given by the ministry and the remarks made by Tambun (Anwar)."
Deputy Speaker Datuk Ramli Mohd Nor said this was a serious matter and would need to be referred to the speaker for a decision.
"To coordinate all decisions in Parliament, both (Deputy Speaker) Alice (Lau) and myself will refer to the speaker."
During the tabling of the 2023 Budget, Anwar, who is also finance minister, said leakages of subsidised diesel were estimated at almost RM10 billion last year.
Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub had, on March 9, said five ministries would meet over the next few weeks to look into the report.
Apart from his ministry, the four other ministries were the Finance Ministry, Home Ministry, Defence Ministry and Agriculture and Food Security Ministry.
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