BUDGET 2025 | It would take years to prepare a budget proposal if every detail has to be decided before the finance minister delivers his speech, said Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli.
He said Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman should know better before criticising the announcement to withdraw subsidised RON95 petrol for the top 15 percent income earners (T15).
He said the budget proposal is a statement of the government’s intentions and plans for the coming year, so the figures presented are merely projections and estimates.
“It’s not like we draw up building specifications and appoint contractors before including it and announcing it in the budget. The government states the preliminary estimates on revenue and expenditure that involve policies and projects to seek Dewan Rakyat’s approval.
“Once approved, the government can then use that approval to finalise details of the project for implementation, including opening tenders, appointing contractors, and so on.
“If you go by Syed Saddiq that everything has to be specified and finalised before being announced in the budget, it would take years to prepare a budget and volumes of the budget would have to be printed for each MP.
“He (Syed Saddiq) should already be aware of this because he was once the youngest minister,” he said in a video posted on social media last night.
Govt doing necessary planning
Rafizi also rebutted claims that the government has not thought through its plans to withdraw subsidies from the T15 earners.
Instead, various proposals and methods for defining the T15 group have been discussed at various levels of the government.
“Now that the government has decided to go ahead with the RON95 subsidy rationalisation with a clear timeline, the method that has been finalised will be presented to the cabinet for approval.
“Once everything has been harmonised and details of the implementation have been approved by the cabinet, only then it can be announced to the people,” he said.
He also reiterated that the definition of T15 will not be based solely on gross income, and the government is instead working on a fairer measure that would account for other socio-economic factors.
He noted that the cost of living is not determined by income alone but also by the size of a household, location, dependents, and more.
Why announce before sorting out details?
During his budget speech last Friday, Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that the government would implement targeted RON95 subsidies from the middle of next year, though 85 percent of the population would not be affected.
After Rafizi was reported saying that the definition of the T15 group to be excluded from the subsidy was still being defined, Syed Saddiq questioned why the announcement was made before the details were ready.
“How come the government could announce in the budget that the ‘mahakaya’ (extremely rich) enjoys RM8 billion in (RON95) petrol subsidies (a year)?
“Don’t ‘announce first, (and then) think later’. People’s lives are at stake,” the former youth and sports minister said in a post on X on Sunday. - Mkini
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