(July 1): The country's ratings will not truly improve unless Putrajaya seriously combats corruption and wastage, PKR said today after Fitch maintained Malaysia's credit rating at A-.

Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen said in the meantime, the opposition party would continue to monitor and combat corruption amid the latest controversies seen in the overpriced purchase of a Melbourne property by Majlis Amanah Rakyat and financial scandals involving government-owned strategic fund 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

"Cases such as the recent Mara Australia property and the 1MDB international financial misadventures remain the bane of the economy and overall governance of the nation," Wong said in a statement today.

 He also said given that Fitch's main role was to assess the ability of a borrower to settle its borrowings, its assessment was not an endorsement of good governance by the Najib administration.
Instead, Wong said, Fitch noted that Malaysia's fiscal position continued to be weak.

He added that the assessment was not a “pat on the back” for Umno and Barisan Nasional.

"The costs of borrowings remain the same at A-, with a minor improvement on outlook from negative to stable.

"In other words, the Umno-BN government has effectively dodged a debt bullet, but it is still far from a recovery."

He said that at the end of the day, it was the additional RM15 billion in annual taxes to be collected from the recent rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) that had saved Putrajaya from a downgrade.

"The GST has essentially saved the Umno-BN government from the threat of a downgrade but at the full expense of the rakyat.

"The rakyat is made to cough up RM15 billion extra to pay the mountain of debts that the government created," he said.

Fitch says that Malaysia's fiscal finances have improved and views progress on the GST and fuel subsidy reform as supportive of the fiscal finances.

Wong said, however, that the ending of the fuel subsidy was not due to government action per se, but the result of the fall in the price of crude oil. – The Malaysian Insider