Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 27): The Budget 2018 presented by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak today was a kind of "showmanship", according to opposition leader Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
 
She said the national budget did not prioritise the core issues of the country, such as corruption and wastages.
 
“Corruption and wastages in our country are most important (issues to be addressed). While you can give all the goodies, the basic problem in the administration of the country has to be addressed. That is the reality,” the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president told reporters at the Parliament lobby here today.
 
PKR Member of the Parliament for Kelana Jaya, Wong Chen, described Budget 2018 as "bizarre", as it announced reduction in income tax rate and zero-rating more items under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), but at the same time, expects higher tax revenues in 2018.
 
“It announced more GST-exempted goods. At the same time, in the budget revenue book, they are projecting GST collection to hit RM44 billion (in 2018). That is an additional RM2.3 billion, compared with 2017. This effectively means that every Malaysian household will have to pay more in GST next year,” he said.
 
Earlier, Najib said the government is proposing all services provided by the local authorities to be exempted from GST from April 1, 2018 or Oct 1, 2018, based on the local authorities' own discretion.
 
Najib also proposed to have reading materials treated as zero-rated items under GST, beginning 2018.
 
Wong noted Najib has allocated RM12 billion in development fund to the Prime Minister’s Department in 2018, but the health ministry will only receive RM1.8 billion for development purposes under the budget, while the education ministry is to receive RM1.4 billion.

"What is the Prime Minister spending RM12 billion on? The total budget allocated to the Prime Minister’s Department is RM18 billion,” Wong said.

Last year, a total of RM15.94 billion was allocated to the Prime Minister’s Department.

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