KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has accused the government of using public money to support it's “cronies” instead of the public. Anwar Ibrahim argued while debating the supplementary supply bill that the total amount of money was nearly 40 percent more than the original allocation in the 2012 budget, specifically pointing to the increase in sugar and toll subsidies as “ensuring the profitability of crony companies." “I am certain in this case, the profit to the crony companies is excessive," the opposition leader said of the RM343 million added to the initial RM446 million to subsidise tolls. He also said that as Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary's Tradewinds is one of two companies that control the local sugar market, the RM367 million added to the RM198 million allocated under the budget was not proportional to the actual increase in sugar prices. “We want to know who actually benefits from these subsidies. They say it's for the public. Show us what are the profits of these companies," the Permatang Pauh MP said. The opposition has previously questioned if the government is handing over the RM198 million allocated for sugar subsidies under the fiscal budget to politically-connected companies after nearly tripling sugar subsidies despite a dive in global prices over the second half of 2011. DAP publicity chief Tony Pua had pointed out that after hitting a peak of US$29.47 (RM89.66) per hundred pounds in July 2011, the price of sugar has fallen every month to US$23.42 in December, a 20.5 per cent drop. It has continued to fall this year to just over US$20 per hundred pounds this month.
