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Last Updated: 12:56pm, Dec 23, 2013

PETALING JAYA (Dec 23): A Barisan Nasional lawmaker says the ruling coalition faces a bigger defeat in urban and semi-urban areas in the 14th general election due to the hike in the prices of goods and services.

"People are angry over the hike and won't wote for the government," Pulai MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed told Sinar Harian when asked to comment on the matter.

"In GE13 we lost in the urban areas, and in GE14 (the defeat in urban areas) will be worse," said the Public Accounts Committee chairperson.

Asked about the BN's promise, in its GE13 election manifesto, to reduce the people's burden as a result of the risingliving cost, Nur Jazlan said the Opposition too had failed to fully carry out their manifesto promises.

"Sometimes, the government can't avoid this in the interest of the nation. So we have to sacrifice (the manifesto)," he told the daily.

Nur Jazlan said some of the increases in the prices of goods and services should have been made much earlier but had been delayed.

"When you defer (implementing a decision) too long, the government will still have to implement it," he said.

"If the increases continue to be delayed, the people will most probably be further burdened because the costs will rise further from time to time," he said.

Another BN lawmaker, Datuk Noor Ehsanuddin Mohd Harun, said the people's anger was due to a lack of explanation by the relevant agencies.

He said increases in electricty tariff and toll hikes, for instance, were nothing new as they have taken place all the time.

"Therefore, the agencies involved should have taken greater effort to provide explanation and start communicating with the people much earlier, and not just one or two months before the hike," he added..

The government has announced that electricty rates will go up from Jan 1, and has strongly hinted that highway toll rates will also be increased.

Earlier, the price of sugar shot up after the government withdrew its subsidy, while fuel prices saw a similar incrrase after the subsidies were cut.

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