Electricity tariffs have been hiked by an average of 7 per cent because the government says it cannot afford “subsidies”. But Proton has been enjoying “research grants” from the government.
So who is subsidising whom in the case of Proton?
Source: Proton Annual Report 2010
* Note in the Annual Report 2010
The Government of Malaysia, as part of the Second Stimulus Package under the Ninth Malaysia Plan had within the ambit of the National Automotive Policy (‘NAP’) granted in 2009 a Research and Development (‘R&D’) grant to Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional Sdn. Bhd. (‘PONSB’), a wholly owned subsidiary company. One of the objectives of the NAP is to provide support and incentives to enhance competitiveness and capability of the automotive industry through the development of the latest and more sophisticated technology. PONSB, being a full fledged automotive manufacturer has complied with the requirements and had been allocated funds in the form of a R&D grant.
During the financial year (2010), PONSB has recognised R&D grant income amounting to RM143,688,000 (2009: RM80,656,000) based on R&D expenditure that did not meet the capitalisation criteria, as set out in the Group’s accounting policy (Note 3(d)(iii)).
For the quarter ended 31 March 2011:
Source: Proton's quarterly report to Bursa
Notice the difference in terminology: When it comes to government/public funds for essential services to the rakyat, they call them “subsidies”. But when it comes to government funds provided to the corporate sector, they call them “support”, “incentives” and “grants”.
Proton don’t do R&D. They never ashame of playing copy cat. Compare to Proton, Produa are worst, the hopeless “second national car” company, survive by rebadging. The special tax status given to Produa also another form of subsidies.
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17 
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Proton need money to sustain the ailing Lotus, simple as that.
Those British lads at Lotus must be enjoying life with the ‘r&d’ grant, else why there is no Lotus engine on F1? Anyway only a 3-year old kid will believe that the so-called Lotus technology will benefit Proton which cannot even fix its power window problem?
Fool if you are buying Proton car, low quality in every aspect.
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The govt subsidies to Proton of RM90-150m is nothing compared to the subsidies of what several billions a year car buyers give them..
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19 
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During Ah Kong’s accounting times, there is no such things as grants.
Everything was straightforward in black and white accountability for useful purposes.
No hanky-panky with the use of terminologies like ‘grants’ to legalized hoodwinking the undiscerning public who had no access to official documents and accounting.
Now Ah Kong is but a near death ‘effigy’ with no absolute control over what, how, when and for what to spend with his dwindling assets, legally belonging to his anak-anak Malaysia.
Ah Kong: “What is Grant? To me, the meaning: agree to give or allow (something requested) to. When did I agree to waste my assets on so many grants when my anak-anak are hungry under zinc roof homes staring at LK Twin Towers?”
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7 
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THE former Urban Development Agency, now corporatised as UDA Holdings, revealed yesterday that it was indebted to the tune of over RM700 million!!!
Another bail-up again!
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THE former Urban Development Agency, now corporatised as UDA Holdings, revealed yesterday that it was indebted to the tune of over RM700 million (S$286.6 million) and needed government assistance to survive.
UDA chairman Nur Jazlan Mohamed said this in a media statement in response to accusations by several chieftains of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno) and newspaper Utusan Malaysia that the firm had abandoned bumiputera interests by not appointing Malay companies as joint-venture turnkey investors for the proposed RM3 billion Bukit Bintang City Centre.
The seven hectare piece of land sits in the area once occupied by Pudu Jail in downtown Kuala Lumpur and is considered a prime location.
Mr Nur Jazlan, an Umno lawmaker from Pulai in Johor and the son of former information minister Mohamad Rahmat, denied the claims yesterday, saying that UDA ‘had no choice’ but compete to survive as it no longer obtained direct assistance from the government.
‘Most people don’t know that UDA Holdings no longer receives any form of special treatment from the government whether in the form of grants or cash injections or sale of land at nominal prices,’ he said.
UDA was set up in 1971 under the auspices of the New Economic Policy, a sweeping affirmative action programme aimed at uplifting the poorer Malays into economic parity with their richer non-Malay countrymen. More specifically, it was designed to protect the Malay agenda where it came to urban property ownership.
But the UDA of today, corporatised and left to fend for itself, starkly illustrates some of the perils of the policy; that without government aid, the firm could no longer compete against private property developers. Indeed, one of UDA’s problems was an inability to raise rents at its malls that were primarily occupied by Malay small businesses.
Mr Nur Jazlan conceded many of those points yesterday. ‘It is superficial to compare UDA with Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) as Mara still receives grants and allocations to help bumiputeras but not UDA which receives no cash injections in carrying out its business,’ he said in the statement.
He warned that UDA now found itself at a crossroads and asked if bumiputeras still wanted the corporatised government agency to help them in urban areas.
‘If the answer is yes, UDA Holdings at this moment requires urgent financial assistance, especially from the government,’ he said, adding that as a subsidiary of the ministry of finance, it should by right get assistance to continue the bumiputera agenda.
The UDA chairman said that he was working to ‘save’ the company and had tried to lobby Putrajaya for land banks and cash but was denied as the administration of Prime Minister Najib Razak had a policy of reducing federal assistance to government linked companies.
Mr Nur Jazlan revealed that UDA’s debt had now surpassed RM700 million while its assets were worth RM1 billion. He added that total cash flows including that of subsidiaries amounted to RM80 million a year while salary expenditure alone exceeded RM60 million.
Moreover, UDA owed the government RM104 million and had paid market prices for the Pudu Jail land. It still owed RM134 million in land premiums for the property.
‘UDA Holdings recently participated in the tender for the sale of government land in Jalan Conlay and could only afford to bid RM70 million and we lost,’ said Mr Nur Jazlan. ‘The land was eventually sold to a private developer for RM199 million.’
He said that the cost of developing the Bukit Bintang City Centre could reach RM3-4 billion and that the company needed to be prudent and work with strategic partners and not contractors.
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/mnt/html/btpre/registration/redirect.jsp?dlink=/sub/news/story/0,4574,441317,00.html?
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3 
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Ho
Ho 
Ho 
1 M’sia is their Sandiwara n only for all their GREEDY CRONIES !!!! n they will INCREASE everything to make RAKYAT really sick of them 1 DAY……n will …vote them the HELL all out!!!! 
Ho
Ho 
Ho 
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Proton has net asset per share of RM10. Why shld it be given a grant, when their balance sheet shld be strong enough to get them a loan. And, shld a loan be not forthcoming, why not change their lifestyle and sell some assets?
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15 
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That’s the way BN waste monies on JUNK companies. What a pity after all these years, this company is still not independent. A thorough audit and stern actions WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR taken against the wrong doers. Now, how will our electricity bill be billed as some consumers will be billed after June1 for electricity consumed in May.
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15 
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Yes, soon a bail-out for MAS?
mana ada sistem?
Memang ada sistem kroni!
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11 
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Poorly-rated. Like or Dislike:
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No thanks. We buy Honda city or Toyota vios instead.
It’s what proton represents that we hate la…!
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15 
1
People with no ethics won’t be able to grasp this. They really give meaning to the phrase love is blind, and judging by Proton’s latest “designs”, who are we to say otherwise?
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Buy the new MyVi instead of the poor-quality proton:
http://star-motoring.com/News/2011/New-Myvi-open-for-booking-from-June-4.aspx
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0 
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We don`t hate Proton. We loath cronies and people like you who by being a wannabe…
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5 
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who are the cronies you loath? The Lim Goh Tong, Francis Yeoh,Vicent Tan(?)
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1 
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They are proxies for umno….duhhh. Ask Apanama !!
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1 
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U r just like proton…. Never grow up to be independent. Vacate the seat if u r not capable. Always telling u have new plans/ models but with outdated technologies. See, Korean cars r sold all over the world. Proton still crawling inspite of govn’s help. MALU tak. Even perodua produces better cars.
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Gerakan K
Please grow up like a Jantan, jangan bodoh…!
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2 
2
its (someone’s) pet project. who dares go against (him)? badawi tried to be funny with (him). what happened?
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8 
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why worry for pak lah when (was involved in the) Limbang (deal)?
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3 
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Same leeching species, different names & different faces!
So don’t continue to be fooled, rakyat-rakyat Malaysia.
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2 
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I wonder what’s Proton ‘researching’. Almost all their models have a product life of 15 years. Face lifts comes in about 2-3 years but the base model goes on for 15 years or more. Proton is really inefficient- after all the ‘researching’ they produce a mediocre Saga FL (FL stands for funny look) and a re badged Lancer (what-the..?) that’s being beaten by Peugeot, Ford, Hyundai, Mazda models in the same price segment. How to sell Inspira if like this. Proton should be closed down and have all the people sacked starting from the advisor position. Rakyat cannot subsidize Proton anymore- it’s the laziest car company in the world. Hoi bangun buat keje la people.
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10 
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A well researched Proton product?
Do You Know: Proton is an idiosyncratic acronym for:
PROblems By The TONs.
Ask any seasoned Protonite inside gaya-raya Proton corporation why he is not shaking his head.
Apanama problem tu?
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8 
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Need to pay the travel expenses for those proton executives to UK under the pretext of ‘managing’ Lotus?
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4 
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A rebadge lancer and they have the nerve to say that they have invested 500 millions in R&D for this model… half truth is what they are good in.
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7 
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It is perfectly fine if proton uses the R&D grant to develop fuel efficient engines, better safety features or quality at a competitive price that rival the best.
That would have been beneficial to our Malaysian motor engineering apprentices and the automobile industry.
However judging from the recent Mitsubishi cloned “new model”, why proton qualify for such R&D grant at all.
If that particular vehicle class is not proton’s specialty then stay out of it.
As Copy & Paste is definitely not Research and Development.
Is proton addicted to opium as described by Najib ?
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Proton can only fool the kampung folks into thinking that it has built a car of Lancer quality with its own capability. Those kampung folks do not know what is ‘rebadge’ as utusan, rtm and tv3 do not tell them the truth. They can syiok sendiri with such ‘achievement’.
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9 
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How to soften the impact of a tariff hike:
1. The it’s not our fault assertion. Blame everything under the sun.
2. Change your lifestyle. Enjoy the heat, like thousands of tourists do and pay for.
3. Avoid mention of all contentious issues raised by annoying bloggers like this one.
4. Send in the Gherkin brigade.
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I suspect these R&D Grants to Proton totalling more than $500 million over the last 5 years are nothing more than thinly disguised bailouts to prop up massive operating losses.
Apparently, this year’s $222 million R&D Grant dished out by MoF was incurred to develope hybrid engines. I’d like to know which Proton model is going to use one and what the total R&D cost will be.
Recently, Proton took on massive debt to turn around Lotus. I think in the near future we will see another massive write-off with Lotus (maybe) sold for Euro1 as was MV Augusta, again with Mahathir still as “Advisor” to Proton!!
dpp
we are all of 1 Race, the Humna Race
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PM Najib obviously needs to keep Proton’s racist patron happy.
Companies that rely on crutches will eventually die a natural death.
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6 
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Proton is kept alive in order not to dash the dream (of escaping the infamous malay dilemma) of those rural folks.
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You are right.
It is a must for (many) malay(s) who have got a job in the city to drive a car home to his/her kampung to show off his/her arrival/achievement.
Such mentality is brought by our NAPm – National Apanama Policy to make malays buy Proton out of blind faith.
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0 
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GOVT should stop grants to PROTON!!
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7 
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Robin Hood rob the rich and help the poor. UMNO & BN … help the rich and their cronies.
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6 
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Who is or rather who are the people running Proton? Najib needs their support in Umno to stay on as president thus as P.M. of Malaysia. Najib has learnt from shenanigan Mahathir how to remain as P.M. for 23 years and that is why (Pas has been) approached … to become a coalition partner and offered … three ministries.
He is very desperate to hang on as P.M.and he is well aware of his deputy’s ambition …
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… Felda. The billions just pumped into it come from our retirement fund EPF. Apparently, neither we nor our MPs need to be informed why. Such is the wisdom of our masters.
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Ah Kong’s monies mah. Ah Kong’s is not in control, so is the big question of future of anak-anak Malaysia.
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1 
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Ah Kong sleeping then Ah Mah must wake up Ah Kong lah. but who is Ah Mah????
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0 
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Why are we the taxpayers subsidizing those rich companies (IPPs, Protons, MAS…)?
When it comes to cronies, all sorts of excuses are used to protect them, but we consumers are taken for a ride by the government every time.
Each time Barang Naik we must ubah gaya hidup?
I cannot see any ‘high income nation’.
All I know is my diminishing purchasing power.
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The Economic Transformation Program (ETP) will transform this country into another Zimbabwe. Najib was all enthusiastic and gave rakyat all hopes when he became PM, only to finally transform all his programs and projects into Umno-cronies-only programs. Even the Malay-dominant PAS rejects his programs.
The time has come for us to go deep into the kampungs and spread our message across to the kampung folks: Vote for Pakatan Rakyat
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Malaysia’s “infant (car) industry” is certainly taking a long time to grow up.
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Anil
What is the reason (or excuse) given by BN for not able to afford those subsidies?
I do not seem to get the answer at all. Perhaps I miss out their justification.
What do they plan to do with the ‘savings’ from subtsidies that is ‘rakyat didahulukna’?
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Hi 5……..I am so over Proton. Toyota or Honda a better choice. R & D are just rubbish.
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WHY THE IMPACT ON BUSINESS DUE TO TARIFF HIKE WILL BE MINIMAL
Since the last tariff hike in 2006, citizens and corporations have undertaken steps to conserve electricity through the use of energy-saving products. They know that the hike will not be the last.
The hike in rate has nothing to do with mismanagement by the Government of the country’s energy resources or Tenaga Malaysia Berhad’s craving to soar its profit margin sky high.
The fact is the price of fuel and gas went up. This is a global issue and no country in the world can do anything much to control it. We have to be realistic and not allow opposition politicians to spray their poisonous sermon to hoodwink the people into believing that the current Government is inefficient and heartless
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It is not only the big projects that the Umnoputras are scrambling for, even the small ‘sebut harga’ projects can see their fingerprints. It used to be that certain small Federal projects (eg Security, Foof Supply, Uniforms etc) were on tender basis (National basis) but not anymore as now they are broken into smaller components ( State basis) so as to accomodate more players ( mostly Umnoputras). Maybe it is part of the ETP or whatever programs, the whole exercise smells ‘fishy’. Players who have no track records in the ‘industry’ are now Government suppliers!. This practise is getting very rampant. If this kind of scenario is allowed to flourish, it will only be a matter of time when Manufacturers will start to close their operations! The Government should stop patronising these operators ( Umnoputras) and allow legitimate business to flourish!
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MACC should investigate what Tan Sri Ani Arope claimed. This is serious and there were abuse of power and possibly corruption involved. Why would EPU involved in negotiation on electrical traffic between independent power suppliers with Tenaga? Why would EPU want Tenaga to pay more when the seller willing to sell lower? This involved tax payer money and the people are made to suffer for so many years and years to come.
As Malaysians, I demand investigation to be initiated immediately and those guilty to be charged. The more we get rid of these scumbags the better it is.
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About time for governemtn to subsidize Astro?
Astro is joining the Barang naik phenomena…. I have been subscribing for so many years and the prices kept on increasing even after revising my package to the minimum. It’s an excuse saying they could not absorb the high costs anymore when they have other indirect revenues such as from advertisements placed with them. As long as they continue monopolizing this market, we are at their mercy.
The only way to make them wake up is to terminate our service with them.
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