Budget 2023: Rafizi plans to maintain development spending

Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli today dropped some indications about the upcoming tabling of Budget 2023 in Parliament next month in terms of the development expenditure that is under the purview of his ministry.

He said the ministry’s goal is to maintain the level of spending and stay on course with the existing projects while finding ways to expand into new projects in important sectors.

“Our approach so far is not only for us to continue all existing projects but we are looking for space to add more new projects in important and core sectors.

“The challenge is that if we only have a certain amount (of funds), how do we ensure we can add new projects with the existing funds?” Rafizi (above) said.

He was speaking at a press conference after he launched the OpenDOSM NextGen website at the Statistics Department in Putrajaya today.

Rafizi did not reveal the specific amount of funds he was referring to, saying this would be announced during the tabling of Budget 2023 during the Parliament sitting in February.

Working to get ‘the best value’

One of the ways his ministry is trying to tackle the challenge of expanding new projects while maintaining the level of spending is to try to get “the best value out of the money” it has.

“There is a lot of space, actually, that we can use to ensure the same allocations will not further burden the government.

“We can get a bigger multiplying effect and at the same time, we give a clear signal to the industry and economy on important sectors that we will prioritise,” he said.

Rafizi explained that a project’s cost relies on timing and implementation, as the longer a project is delayed, the higher the cost will rise due to various factors such as inflation.

With regard to the operational expenditure, he said that this is under the Finance Ministry’s purview.

Budget 2023 is scheduled to be tabled on Feb 24 during the Dewan Rakyat’s first session of the 15th Parliament.

Earlier this year, the Ismail Sabri Yaakob administration had slated 28 days for debates on Budget 2023. However, Parliament was dissolved before the debates took place.

After the new government was installed, the Dewan Rakyat passed a “mini-budget” on Dec 19 last year to ensure that Parliament’s approval for civil service emoluments would be paid on Jan 1, 2023. - Mkini