This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 28, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: The federal government is seeking RM15.49 billion from the Consolidated Fund to supplement its development expenditure of RM46 billion for 2018.

In addition, the finance ministry is also asking for an extra RM4.1 billion for operational expenditure.

The Supplementary Supply (2018) 2019 Bill was tabled for first reading in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Altogether the federal government is seeking a total supplementary budget of RM19.6 billion — the largest sum since 2012 when the previous government had a supplementary budget of RM25.97 billion.

In 2018, the federal government approved a supplementary budget of RM8.83 billion for spending in 2017.

According to the Bill, the Treasury will receive the bulk of the additional budget at RM9.2 billion.

This is followed by the works ministry with RM1.97 billion, rural development ministry with RM1.43 billion, transport ministry with RM1.4 billion, and economic affairs ministry with RM876.46 million.

The water, land and natural resources ministry is expected to receive RM417.48 million, whereas the Prime Minister’s Department is allocated RM119.59 million and housing and local government ministry is allocated RM30 million.

It should be noted that certain ministries have requested for additional funds as low as between  RM10 and RM200.