Discussing Budget 2023 pointless, MP says
SHAH ALAM - Discussing the 2023 Budget tabled yesterday might just be pointless if Parliament dissolution is expected soon, MP says.
Bakri MP Yeo Bee Yin said if the dissolution of the Parliament took place soon, it would mean that a new budget would be tabled as there would be a change of the government.
“I just felt like us talking about the budget today, it’d probably become pointless by next week.
“Because by next week if there’s a dissolution, then the Parliament will come back to pass another budget if there’s a new Finance Minister or a new government,” she said.
Commenting on the election which were expected to be held this year, Yeo said PH did not agree to hold an election at the end of this year, but there was something more concerning than that.
She said she was more worried about whether or not the country was prepared to face floods.
On the RM15 billion allocated for flood mitigation plans as tabled in the 2023 Budget, she said that was what the government would spend next year.
“You were saying that the budget is related to the floods, but it is actually not.
“The budget is for next year, so for this year what we have is whatever the government has already budgeted and prepared before.
“My worry is not that we have this or that assets, but whether those assets work for the floods this year,” she added.
Yeo said this during the Sinar Daily Wacana English Edition which went live at Karangkraf Complex, here, yesterday.
The show discussed the 2023 Budget tabled by Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz at the Dewan Rakyat, yesterday.
Other panellists during the session were economist Professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Deputy National Unity Minister Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal.
Yesterday, the Budget 2023 tabled showed allocations of RM372.3 billion as Malaysia’s second largest budget ever presented as well as an increase of 12 per cent from last year.
However, this year’s budget comes with added uncertainty as talks of dissolving Parliament went around with politicised calls for an early general election to be held at the end of this year.
