Consolidated fund bill presented for first reading in Dewan Rakyat

 

Anwar Ibrahim says the bill will be presented for the second reading during this first meeting of the first term of the 15th Parliament, held over two days. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The first reading of the Consolidated Fund (Expenditure On Account) Bill 2022 has been tabled in the Dewan Rakyat.

It was presented by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who is also finance minister, Bernama reported.

He said that the bill will be presented for the second reading during this first meeting of the first term of the 15th Parliament, held over two days.

Yesterday, it was reported that the bill was mainly to pay the salaries of civil servants and other related operational expenditure to ensure the smooth operations of the government until the new budget is passed.

It is expected that the government will use a section of the Development Fund Act which allows supplementary budgets for unplanned expenditure to be tabled.

Budget 2023 was presented on Oct 7 by the then finance minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz with a total allocation of RM372.3 billion but was not approved due to the dissolution of Parliament three days later to make way for the 15th general election (GE15).

Anwar is expected to table a full new budget early next year.

He was reported to have said that the government will look at the proposals in the budget tabled by the previous government and make the necessary changes before tabling his government’s budget. - FMT