KUALA LUMPUR: Putrajaya is misleading the public on the actual state of the nation’s economy with manipulated and meaningless budget deficit figures, an opposition lawmaker said yesterday.

DAP’s Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said the actual state of Malaysia’s fiscal deficit was unknown because of major multibillion ringgit projects left out of Budget 2015.

Projects such as the first phase of the mass rapid transit (MRT) construction (RM22 billion) and light rail transit (LRT) extension (RM8 billion) had been excluded from the budget.

“Furthermore, Putrajaya is also spending RM10 billion to construct 74 new police headquarters at the state and district levels,” Pua said in a statement. “Many other projects which come under government expenditure have not been reflected in Putrajaya’s finances.”

Pua said when he asked deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan to clarify in Parliament, he received a feeble answer.

“Ahmad merely said ‘numbers do not lie’ and his officers had meticulously provided figures and numbers. Hence, they could not be wrong.”

Last Thursday, during the winding up of the Budget 2015 policy, Ahmad provided figures to prove Putrajaya’s commitment to reducing the budget deficit.

Ahmad said Putrajaya’s budget deficit had declined from 6.7% in 2009 to 5.4% (2010), 4.8% (2011), 4.5% (2012), 3.9% (2013) and 3.5% (2014).

“Putrajaya’s target for 2015 is a 3% budget deficit,” Ahmad said in Parliament.

Pua said he had interrupted at this point to enquire if the budget deficit numbers reflected the actual deficit of Putrajaya’s finances.

“My point was that the calculation of official Putrajaya deficits did not take into account the mammoth projects and expenditures and the debts it accumulated.

“Ahmad either does not understand public finance economics or else he intentionally avoided answering my question,” Pua said.

He said Ahmad had steadfastly refused to explain why multibillion ringgit expenditures had not been incorporated into the budget.

“Neither did he explain what will be the impact on the deficit percentages had these expenditures been included.”

Pua said it was clear that the inclusion of multibillion ringgit projects would substantially increase the nation’s fiscal deficit.

“Every RM11 billion in additional expenditure would increase the deficit by 1%,” he said, adding that the public deserved to know the truth. - The Malaysian Insider

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 10, 2014.