Hey, Big Spender!
Four days ago, our DPM said that that “the country has met the target of eradicating abject poverty this year following proactive action taken by the government to assist the affected group. He added that although poverty could be eradicated, the government’s agenda to continue to eradicate poverty relatively was ongoing by expanding the various training and guidance programmes to raise the income of the poor. CLICK HERE for more. It does not make sense that on one hand the government tries to eradicate poverty while on the other hand, we see excessive spending.
Today, Free Malaysia Today reported HERE that since taking over the reins in April, 2009, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has spent nearly RM9 million on foreign trips. The report said that PKR Senator Syed Husin Ali revealed a list containing details of the trips in the Parliament lobby this morning. The list provided by the Prime Minister’s Deparment, showed that Najib had gone on 42 official trips abroad which cost RM8,724,895.91. The most expensive of these trips were visits to Japan, the United States and Vietnam. The trips cost RM2,094,635.39 and took place between April 5 and 22 this year.
That is A LOT of money, isn’t it?
In July 2010, MP Liew Chin Tong reported in his blog HERE that The Prime Minister’s Department’s allocation for 2010 is a whopping RM12 billion, not RM4 billion as some people may have perceived it to be. MP Liew also said:
Under a separate category of “development”, the PMD received RM 8.238 billion. Thus, the total budgetary outlay for the PMD in 2010 is RM12.1 billion, as revealed by the Federal Budget Estimates.
The PMD’s budget wasn’t so huge not too long ago. In the entire Eighth Malaysia Plan period (2001-2005), the development budget of the PMD was RM7.2 billion, or 4.3 per cent of the Plan’s total allocations. This means the development allocation for 2010 alone (RM 8.2 billion) surpassed the sum allocated for the first five years of the 21st century.
The PMD, which was already relatively strong and powerful compared to other Commonwealth countries, has grown beyond recognition, especially over the course of the last decade.
Its development budget underwent a four-fold increase in the 9th Malaysia Plan , driving its allocation up to RM 29.6 billion, or 13.5 per cent of the Plan’s total.
The huge increases in the PMD’s budget in 2009 and 2010 have never been seen before. The combined operating and development expenditure for 2009 was RM14 billion; nearly double the RM7.1 billion allocated for 2008. The total for 2005 was a mere RM4.1 billion in comparison.
A different way of looking at it is that the development budget for 2009 (RM10 billion) was five times that of 2005 (RM2 billion) while in 2010 (RM8.2 billion), is four times that of the base year.
Take a look at our GDP growth rate AT THIS LINK and note the downward trend.
Note the negative responses to the NEM as reported HERE in The Malaysian Insider.
In the light of such statistics, rising costs of living and diminishing purchasing power, is the government ready to cut costs by being prudent so that the rakyat will not have to bear unnecessary burden?
Is it right that so much money is spent whilst many are suffering because our wallets are getting lighter? We cannot breathe normally because the possibility of further subsidy cuts will drastically reduce the relative buying power among the poor, not forgetting the possibility the implementation of GST looming over us!!!
What lies ahead for us, Malaysians? Here’s a summary of possibilities as reported HERE.
1. Prices of goods and services will rise from 2011 to 2015 as the Najib administration moves to cut subsidies gradually and rein in a deficit budget, according to a report by The Economist, despite speculation of imminent polls.
“Government efforts to rationalise the country’s extensive subsidy scheme will exert an upward influence on prices in the forecast period (2011 till 2015),” said the magazine’s Intelligence Unit report on Malaysia for December.
2. The price of fuel and sugar went up on December 4 as part of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s ongoing drive to reduce subsidies although a Cabinet minister had assured no price hikes for the rest of the year.
3. The price of RON95 increased by five sen to RM1.90 per litre, diesel by five sen per litre to RM1.80 and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by five sen to RM1.90 per kg. Sugar also cost 20 sen more at RM2.10 per kg.
4. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) country report also expected the government to introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) within the next few years and predicted an annual inflation of 3.4 per cent from 2011 till 2015.
5. The EIU report noted that the third quarter this year experienced considerably slow growth, which was expected to persist in the fourth quarter.
6. “Data for the first half of 2010 show that the economy expanded by an average of 9.5 per cent year on year during that period, but data for the third quarter point to a marked slowdown in the rate of GDP growth, and this trend is expected to continue in the fourth quarter,” it said.
“The Malaysian economy is expected to move on to a more stable growth path in 2011-15, when we expect real GDP growth to average 5 per cent a year,” added the report.
7. Malaysia’s economy grew 5.3 per cent in the third quarter of this year after a strong first half due to slowing external demand and reduced government spending.
But where was the reduced spending? By how much???
