Last night, the motion to set up the Public Transportation Trust Fund was adopted by Parliament.

However, the RM4.4 billion that was promised for the Trust Fund had been completely wiped out by the increasing world prices for petroleum, hitting USD73 per barrel.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Finance Ministry, Datuk Hilmi Yahaya who tabled the motion, tried to avoid this pertinent question.

As soon as I got up to speak, I asked the question, “Where is the RM 4.4 billion now and how much money is the government actually allocating to kick start the Trust Fund?”

He replied: “Just RM100 million as the RM4.4 billion had been completely wiped out by the increased in world oil prices!”

Hilmi continued; “The government has to go ahead with the Trust Fund as we have promised the people. Not only that we have no savings to show, we will end up supporting more subsidies as we have also promised not to raise petrol prices the whole of this year.”

“The government may have to sell bond to raise the RM4.4 billion,” he added with desperation.

I think the government has failed miserably on the handling the petrol hike and the decision to set up the Trust Fund was an afterthought to quell public sentiment.

Now they are stuck with a promise (not to increase price the whole of this year) that they may find difficult to keep.

Outside the House, I have this to say to Hilmi, “Kerajaan jangan tipu rakyat, ah!”