PKR propose 12 policies after pre-budget meeting with Finance Ministry

SHAH ALAM - PKR has disclosed their 12 policies consisting of economic, political and social policies as an initiative to help the rakyat following the pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz on Sept 13.

Subang MP Wong Chen who attended the meeting along with PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar and PKR Wanita chief Fuziah Salleh said the 12 policies came out after the discussion regarding fiscal and economic issues.

The 12 policies were:

1. To expedite the approval of migrant workers permits to help SMEs and employers recover from the pandemic;
2. To address the learning loss of our students during the pandemic;
3. To help the tourism industry with workers and capital, as the industry can be a good income source to help defend our currency;
4. To be much friendlier to foreign residents who bring in much needed capital, skills and economic consumption;
5. To address food insecurity by empowering farmers and fishermen, and improving supply chain logistics;
6. To boost TVET and address the perennial under-employment issues;
7. Tto prepare now for floods and to set aside a sizeable fund for rescue and relief efforts;
8. To improve on gender-responsive budgeting and to ensure ministries comply in terms of reporting;
9. To budget and prepare for the passing of the Parliamentary Services Act, and to move the Constituency Development Funds to Parliament from the PMO;
10. To ensure the full rollout of HPV vaccines for girls in all schools;
11. To further promote the implementation of SDGs at all levels of government; and
12. To allocate an adequate budget to properly monitor climate change and to prepare for carbon trading.

During the sortation, the opposition urged the government on the accuracy and fairness of the Budget 2023 revenue projections.

“We (PKR) asked them not to repeat the previous mistakes of projecting revenue too optimistically or illogically.

“We are very firm on this matter as a wrongful projection on revenue will not only disrupt operations of the government next year but also cause a negative cascading effect on the overall expenditure,” he said in a statement.

Wong added, they discussed on the RM77.7 billion cost of subsidies, where PKR believed the government should explore other sources of revenue as well.

“We also suggested the government direct Petronas to revamp and reduce the high-profit margins of all Petronas vendors.

“By implementing a more competitive, transparent and accountable vendor policy, PKR believes that Petronas profits should dramatically improve,” he said.

Moreover, with the positively inclined profits, Wong claimed it would be significant in reducing the unsustainable national debt level.

Moving on to the development expenditure, the government was warned to tighten up all the mega projects regardless of directly funded on via Private Finance Initiative (PFIs), and only pursue those which were ongoing for completion or deemed absolutely necessary.

PKR also called out the government to be priced fairly, strictly competitive and should be on an open tender basis on the projects.

“What is most important is to make sure they are able to generate real economic multiplier benefits.

“On operating expenditure, we are aware that there is in fact limited capacity of the government to pursue new policies, and as such PKR urged the government to focus more on subsidies for 2023,” he added.

PKR in the statement also mentioned currency and inflation that Central Bank should be free from undue influence of politics, and pursue a prudent monetary policy.

“We also asked the government to direct GLICs to reduce their foreign equities in equities portfolio and to return these money to Malaysia, so as to defend the ringgit,” he said.