Zafrul: Putrajaya has enough to fund latest economic aid

Putrajaya has enough money to fund the latest economic aid "Pemerkasa Plus" announced by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday.

In a press conference today, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz (above) said the stimulus package involves a fiscal injection of RM5 billion by the government.

The government can either tap into its savings, dividends from government-linked companies (GLCs), from statutory bodies, or from borrowing, he added.

"We are in a very challenging fiscal position because of where we are. We are in a crisis.

"Of course we have enough money to finance it, by increasing our borrowing (and by other means)," Zafrul said.

He said the direct fiscal injection may further widen the country's fiscal deficit, which recently recorded six percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

"The deficit may go up and the GDP may be revised downward," Zafrul noted.

However, he said the government needed more time to figure out the real impact of the latest total lockdown, which will be implemented between June 1 and 14.

Previously, Zafrul said the tightened MCO 3.0 was estimated to have up to one percent impact on the GDP throughout the implementation period from May 12 to June 7. 

Last month, Muhyiddin lamented that the country was less well off after spending RM600 billion for Budget 2021 and the various stimulus packages.

Before this, Putrajaya had announced six stimulus packages, namely Prihatin worth RM250 billion, Prihatin SMEs (RM10 billion), Penjana (RM35 billion), Kita Prihatin (RM10 billion), Permai (RM15 billion) and Pemerkasa (RM20 billion). - Mkini