Idris Jala sticks to his guns

(The Star) – Datuk Seri Idris Jala insists that Malaysia needs to start reducing subsidies or face the risk of bankruptcy.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said that since 1998, Malaysia has been operating on a deficit budget, which has seen its debts increase.

He said the country’s debt was growing around 12% annually and it would not be able sustain this based on the last decade’s annual gross development growth of 4%.

“We have been borrowing to spend, it is increasing our deficit and debt, we cannot go on like this,” Idris said at a talk with Parti Bersatu Sabah members on the 10th Malaysia Plan and other the government transformation programmes, here, Saturday.

“If you earn RM1,000 and spend RM1,200 a month, then you have borrow and if you go on (without an increase in salary), you are heading for bankruptcy as you won’t be able to pay the debts,” he explained.

Idris, however, said Malaysia’s debt was still manageable but what was necessary was to reduce expenditure.

He said mechanisms had been worked out to assist the poorer groups if the subsidies were taken away.

Idris also said that Malaysia’s 10% gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first half this year was a good sign for its planned economic transformation to a high-income country.