Pakatan’s alternative budget will focus on minimum wage

Pakatan Rakyat says it will not reveal the figures for minimum wage but adds it will be employer-friendly.

PETALING JAYA: The main focus of Pakatan Rakyat’s alternative budget will be minimum wage for workers. It will unveil its budget a week before Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak tables the national budget in Parliament on Oct 7.

PAS central working committee member Dr Dzulkelfly Ahmad, who sits on the Pakatan’s budget team, said Pakatan will not reveal the figures yet but its alternative budge will include various measures to address the concerns of both workers and employers.

The measures will include retraining schemes and tax rebates for employers to guarantee a business-conducive environment as employers are wary of the minimum wage concept as it will eat into their profits.

“We must be friendly as well to the business community… minimum wage must be measured by productivity,” he told a press conference here.

Dzulkelfly, who is Kuala Selangor MP, said this will instantly curtail the country’s dependence on foreign labour.

The government in June had tabled the much-awaited National Wages Consultative Council (NWCC) Bill in Parliament in a move it said would help pave way for the implementation of a national minimum wage policy.

Pakatan leaders and trade unions, however, said the council’s move was merely “cosmetic”.

PKR’s chief strategist, Rafizi Ramli, who was also present, said Pakatan, on the other hand, has decided on a minimum wage amount.

“Pakatan will be the first to commit to a figure.”

BN evasive

Rafizi said the Barisan Nasional government has been evasive on a minimum wage figure, adding that he was not confident that the government is serious in implementing such a policy.

Pakatan-held Selangor and Penang had both tried to implement a minimum wage policy in their states but the power to do so lies within the federal purview.

Meanwhile, DAP international secretary Liew Chin Tong said Pakatan’s alternative budget will also reduce allocations to the Prime Minister’s Department.

The department’s development budget has increased by four times under the Eighth Malaysia Plan from RM7.2 billion to RM29.6 billion under the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

Liew said Najib must explain the expenditure for his department for the last three years, given the drastic increase in allocations due to the “discretionary” nature of the budget.

“The development allocation for the Prime Minister’s Department is discretional expenditure that allows the prime minister to approve it literally with the stroke of a pen, whereas other ministerial expenditures or treasury payments must pass through more rigorous checks.

“The people deserve to know exactly what and where the department has been spending so much money,” said Liew, who is Bukit Bendera MP.