RM6bil tapped from KWAN to ensure vaccine supply

 

Tengku Zafrul Aziz says it is critical for everyone to be given a booster dose, especially with the emergence of the Omicron variant.

KUALA LUMPUR: The government has decided to take RM6 billion from the National Trust Fund (KWAN), a RM1 billion increase from the previous RM5 billion, to ensure a sufficient supply of vaccines, including booster doses, for both the adult population and teenagers.

Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said that based on the current assessment, it is critical for everyone to be given a booster dose, especially with the emergence of the Omicron variant.

“To safeguard the people’s well-being, the government will act proactively and continue to monitor the situation from time to time,” he said during his winding-up speech for the Supply Bill 2022 (Budget 2022) in the Dewan Negara today.

Responding to Senator Lim Hui Ying’s “conjecture” on a lack of transparency in the Covid-19 vaccine purchase and use of KWAN funds, Tengku Zafrul clarified that he had announced when tabling Budget 2021 that it would cost more than RM3 billion to procure Covid-19 vaccines for Malaysians.

“However, given that the supply volume and prices had not been finalised by the vaccine suppliers at the time, no specific allocation was made under the RM322.5 billion Budget 2021,” he explained.

Only by March 2021, which was after the government conducted negotiations for the vaccine supply for up to 120% of the Malaysian population, did the government decide that RM5 billion was needed for vaccine supply procurement and other expenses related to the national Covid-19 immunisation programme (PICK), the minister said.

To expedite the implementation of PICK so that it could be completed by December 2021, the government decided to finance the PICK expenditure of RM5 billion by tapping into KWAN, he said.

“By having the resources dedicated for PICK implementation, Malaysia was recognised as having among the fastest vaccination rates in the world. To date, more than 97% of the adult population have been fully vaccinated and this has reduced the number of Covid-19 cases as well as ICU utilisation rate, which is now below 60%,” he said.

He added that these achievements allowed for nearly all the states in the country to transition to the fourth phase of the national recovery plan. - FMT