Will Budget 2016 Revision Address Public Concern?

PETALING JAYA, Jan 10 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Budget 2016 revision announcement has raised eyebrows, as it hints at a grim reality of the tough times that lie ahead. While the economic downturn is unavoidable at this point, the Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) president Mohd Khalid Atan said whatever revisions carried out should include efforts to correct any weaknesses in the current budget, especially regarding the interest of the needy. 

In response to Najib's claim that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will be the “country’s economic saviour”, especially in terms of revenue earned by the government, Khalid said: “Even if the aim of GST is to improve the revenue of the government, you should not do it at the expense of the people.” His sentiments were echoed by MTUC secretary-general N. Gopal Krishnam, who said despite the government announcing that the cost of living will be reduced, it has in fact gone up by 10 to 20 per cent. 

“GST is not helping anyone except the government. In fact, the PM has openly said without it, the government could not have paid the salaries of public servants. That means only 1.5 million Malaysians have benefitted from GST,” said Gopal. “This is unfair, as they are charging everybody to contribute to the wages of civil servants, when the government should be paying for the wages from its own coffers. The benefits from the revenue should be for all Malaysians, not just a select group of people,” he said.As for the revision of the budget, Gopal said he does not know what will be revealed next, but hopes the government will realise the error of raising the minimum wage limit by a mere RM100 and not standardising the figure. 

“I hope the PM will standardise the minimum wage to RM1,200 across the country, rather than have one figure for Peninsular Malaysia and another figure for Sabah and Sarawak. That is our main concern at the moment. “This also needs to be immediately implemented, rather than waiting till July 1. It has already been delayed for a year, and any further delays will not be good as the cost of living keeps getting higher. “We want to urge the PM to find a way to include this in the revised budget so that the people can cope with the tough challenges ahead,” he said. 

The Congress of Union of Employees in the Public and Civil Services (Cuepacs) secretary Lok Yim Pheng said the implementation of GST is fair, but the government must address the main concerns of the people, which is the high cost of living. “They should consider pushing for additional increments for workers and sharing resources with organisations like the Urban Transformation Centre (UTC) to cut down on expenditure,” she said.Lok also stressed on the importance of education, saying the government must not cut allocations for education. Cuepacs deputy secretary-general Abdul Rahman Mohd Nordin said he hopes the revision of the budget does not involve the government revoking the special assistance promised to civil servants.

Sunday Mail