Harapan's budget chief defends fiscal plan, says it's 'extremely realistic'

A PKR lawmaker has denied that Pakatan Harapan's alternative 2018 budget, which promises the abolishment of GST and continuation of BR1M albeit in a different form, as a populist fiscal plan.

On the contrary, Wong Chen who is Pakatan Alternative Budget 2018 chief, claimed the budget is “extremely realistic”.

“Look at our figures, we projected 2 percent of budget deficit but BN is likely to project 2.9 percent budget deficit. That's the rumour we heard,” he told reporters when met in Parliament.

The Kelana Jaya MP also described it as a “transitional budget”, which the coalition intends to implement when it forms the government.

“This is not populist because what is fundamentally wrong in our country is that wages are too low, capital flight is intense and the brain drain is serious. We can't hire good people. You ask big corporations like Axiata, AirAsia, they will tell you the same story.

“How can this be a populist budget? This is self-repairing the country.

“We want to put more money into people's hands, to bring down the cost of living, to build a better public transport system... We are committed to eliminating leakages,” he added.

Wong said the coalition expected massive savings from its anti-corruption drive, which in turn, would fund the elimination of GST over a period of one year.

He also stressed the importance of “not shocking the system”.

“We must have proper transition and not shock the system. You must allow businesses and consumers to plan for the elimination of GST and progressively deal with the matter.

“If we do see some hiccups in the system, we won't be irresponsible, we may relook into the system. But we are fully committed to the elimination of the system,” he said.

Meanwhile, DAP's Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming also disagreed that Harapan had unveiled a populist budget.

“This is a progressive budget,” he said.

Harapan revealed its alternative budget in Parliament today ahead of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's scheduled tabling of the government's budget in the August House on Friday.

Among others, the Harapan budget intends to revert to the Sales and Services Tax (SST) and slash the allocation for the Prime Minister's Department.

- Mkini