Khairy: Our promises are realistic

Unlike Pakatan, the government’s Budget 2013 is grounded in reality and will not negatively impact the nation’s economy, says the Umno Youth chief.

KUALA LUMPUR: The difference between the government’s Budget 2013 and Pakatan’s budget is that the former is realistic while the latter is ‘plucked from the clouds’, said Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

Taking a swipe at the opposition pact in his budget speech in parliament today, the Umno Youth chief pointed to the concrete figures which he said Pakatan Rakyat lacked in its own budget.

“Take for example generating jobs. Pakatan Rakyat makes all sorts of promises, but they don’t mention how many jobs they intend to generate. Their budget is not empirical,” said Khairy, who is also Rembau MP.

“Ours, on the other hand, is thorough. We don’t make projections without looking at the economic impact. We expect that by 2020 there will be 3.3 million new jobs in the middle to high income range.”

He also criticised the “unrealistic” RM1,100 floor wage promised by Pakatan – a RM200 difference from the RM900 that the government had pledged.

“The World Bank has examined the minimum wage in Malaysia and found that it should not exceed RM900.

“Meanwhile, when the government introduced the RM900 wage, I met with employers and learned that it wasn’t only those below that wage who would be facing a salary increase.

“On the contrary, the employers will be increasing wages across the board,” he said.

BN looks at maintaining economy

Khairy said that Barisan Nasional made “realistic promises” based on discussion and studies to ensure that they would help all Malaysians without negatively impacting the nation’s economy.

“We have to understand, whatever we do, we cannot destroy the country. The promises we make will not lead to the closure of factories, bankruptcies or companies fleeing the country.

“We look at maintaining the economy. That is the difference between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat,” he said.

Khairy also said that Budget 2013 emphasised economic structural change and “was not just about Bantuan Rakyat 1 Malaysia and free vouchers.”

He said that the cash incentives provided in the budget allowed the government to carry out the “rationalisation of subsidies” by identifying households that deserved the subsidies.

“When BR1M was carried out, we were able to identify and reveal those households that earned less than RM3,000.

“We can use that data to give subsidies such as petrol only to them, without including those who do not need the subsidies,” he said.