NAJIB & ZAHID ATTACK HARAPANS BUDGET – BUT NOT A SOUND ON LATEST 1MDB ARRESTS, MR & MRS MO1

FORMER prime minister Najib Razak slammed Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng over his statement today blaming 1Malaysia Development Bhd’s (1MDB) massive loans for the wider fiscal deficit of 3.7% of the gross domestic product (GDP).Najib, who is the former finance minister, said the government’s loss of revenue of more than RM40 billion was due to it scrapping the goods and services tax (GST).

“It’s obvious they want to blame the Barisan Nasional government and the 1MDB issue. They have not mentioned anything about 1MDB’s assets. 1MDB has many assets, if we monetise the assets we can decide on the best value.

“1MDB’s debts can be paid off,” Najib told reporters shortly after Budget 2019 was announced in Parliament earlier.

He said PH’s replacement of the GST with the sales and services tax (SST) in September after a three-month tax holiday had left a revenue shortfall which the government is now scrambling to recover.

“SST this year, they only get RM5 billion,” said Najib.

“There is a shortfall, and this is really what is haunting the finance minister, which is really the root issue.

“If they had kept the GST, everything could continue, including MRT3, the high-speed rail (HSR), ECRL and aid like BR1M.”

In his Budget 2019 speech, Lim had said one of the reasons for the country’s widening deficit was  the previous government failure to set aside allocations to repay 1MDB’s debts amounting to RM1 billion.

“The previous government did not prepare allocations to service 1MDB’s RM1 billion debt, take over the RM1.3 billion EDL project in Johor, RM1 billion for Prasarana and the Transport Ministry’s RM1.4 billion rail project, as well as RM3.9 billion for GST refunds,” he said. – THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT

No ‘magic’ in Pakatan’s budget, says Zahid

BUDGET 2019 places more emphasis on increasing government revenue instead of handing out incentives for the people, Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said in rejecting the first national budget tabled by the new Pakatan Harapan government.

“There were no surprises or magic in the form of incentives for the people. There is no allocation for farmers and fishermen,”   Zahid said in the Parliament lobby after the budget was tabled.

Zahid, who is also former deputy prime minister, added that slashing projects only benefitted the government and not the people.

“We see that a lot of big projects have been scaled down. In this context, it doesn’t represent a form of savings.

“That also goes for the efforts to increase government revenue. They are suggesting the selling of assets and this is a backwards move,” Zahid said.

Meanwhile, Umno’s Bung Mokhtar Radin said Budget 2019 was a copy of the previous Barisan Nasional budget.

“I do not see this as a new budget; they only changed the name. The rest of it is a continuation of the previous BN budget,” he said.

The Kinabatangan MP said he expected free education in Malaysia after RM60.2 billion was allocated to the Education Ministry.

“I want to see what happens with the education sector. Last time, the minister had said that if the allocation was RM40 billion, he would make education free.

Now, it has been increased to RM60.2 billion, so I would like to see if he will implement (free education) or not,” Bung added.

THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT