6 Immediate Responds on PMs revised budget announcement: 1. We regret that the Prime Minister/Finance Minister announced budget revision through a hastily assembled briefing. The PM should call a special sitting in Parliament to revise the budget. This is undermining parliament democracy where parliament is the highest decision body to decide government budget. We urge the Finance Minister to table a revised budget immediately in February through proper parliament scrutiny. 2. We are disappointed that PM did not take the bulls by the horns to tackle looming economic crisis. His 6 strategies were limited to several export and SME sectors but in reality the economic challenges are coming from all fronts. He missed the opportunity to rally the rakyat to support his transformational agendas. Because, this 6 new strategies are neither transformational nor inspiring. The rakyat is hoping his resolve to tackle real issues of economic stagnation: abolish GST, rising price of goods, corruption and leakages. 3. In 2015 Budget, Government Operating Expenditure was RM223.4 billion. Today PM announced 5.5 billion cut in Opex. It only constitute 2.2% cut. We think this cut is too little and too limited to several programs only. We think that the government must employ critical strategy during critical time. We think that the government must use political-fiscal strategy of Starving the Beast (by Ronald Reagan) to cut wasteful spending by the federal government. PM must lead the charge in painful time by announcing 10% cut across all ministries on wasteful spending and leakages and channel those money in Development Expenditure to propel future growth. Only this starve the beast strategy will wake the entire government up to the challenges we are facing now. 4. PM continued to paint positive picture on Malaysia economic front. This is unrealistic. In actual fact, the economic situation on the ground is negative. Consumer spending has shrunk. Consumer Price Index has shot up. FBM KCLI has dropped 8% from mid 2014. Ringgit has dropped 11%, oil price has dropped 50%. Industrial output is not catching up due to slower demand in Europe, China and US. The Government did not properly briefed the rakyat the true picture of the economy. 5. PM continued his usual way of dishing out goodies to different sectors. He was right to focus on the export sector and SME. That will help propel Malaysian export to global market. We agree on this strategy. However, the government must tackle influx of foreign workers and wage stagnation in manufacturing sector, else all incentives in this sector will only benefit foreign investors, company bosses and foreign labours. 6. The PM should immediately cut electricity tariffs, not postponing tariff hike. Global Oil and Gas price has dropped 50%, there is no reason to continue to protect Independent Power Producers such as 1MDB. Keeping the current electrical tariffs will only ensure exorbitant profits for the IPPs. Sim Tze Tzin Member of Parliament for Bayan Baru
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 05:37:42 +0000
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