KUALA LUMPUR – The government will expand its “War on Sugar” as it does not make sense to continue subsidising it and medical treatments for diabetes at the same time, Deputy Health Minister Datuk Lukanisman Awang Sauni told the Dewan Rakyat today.
The ministry’s war on sugar will include pushing awareness among the public as well as re-considering subsidies given to sugar manufacturers on a regular basis, he said.
“It is not good that we (government) give excessive subsidies (to sugar manufacturers) while we also bear a high cost to treat diabetes at the same time,” he when responding to a supplementary question asked by Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman (Muar-Muda).
The Muda MP had asked whether Putrajaya would consider gradually reducing subsidies given to two main sugar manufacturers – MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd (MSM) and Central Sugars Refinery Sdn Bhd (CSR) – which he said amounted to RM1 billion per year.
Lukanisman said diabetes has been on the rise among Malaysians, with 3.5 million citizens afflicted according to the ministry’s National Health and Morbidity Survey 2023 report.
The government incurs a direct cost of RM3.3 billion, which is 7.3% of the total RM45.3 billion in healthcare costs spent by the ministry in 2021 to treat metabolic diseases like diabetes, he added, citing a 2021 report on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases in Malaysia.
Syed Saddiq, meanwhile, said Putrajaya should be bold not only in increasing the excise duty rate for sugar-sweetened beverages to 90 sen per litre next year, but also reduce subsidies to sugar producers if it is serious with its “War on Sugar” campaign.
Lukanisman, in response, said that the Muda MP’s proposal can be raised by the health ministry to the Economy Ministry and the Finance Ministry.
In August, health think tank Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy reportedly said that while it backed Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad’s proposal to increase the sugar tax to 20%, it wanted the government to remove sugar subsidies by removing it from the gazetted items list under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011.
Meanwhile, when asked by R. Yuneswaran (Segamat-PH) on whether the government would consider providing additional subsidies for insulin medication and dialysis treatment for poor and low-income patients, Lukanisman said that the government has allocated an increment of 87.1% in funds to procure more SGLT2 inhibitors – which is a drug used to treat Type 2 diabetes – under Budget 2025.
The procurement of these drugs would benefit 280,230 diabetes patients in this country, as more than 3,000 patients are using these drugs – November 4, 2024