By Shannon Teoh
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Pakatan Rakyat today unveiled its “recommendations for the 2009 Malaysian Budget,” which include proposals to shelve a number of mega projects such as the undersea cable and high-speed broadband, as well as to auction off Approved Permits (APs) for cars to increase revenue and lower cost.
The 20-page document is meant to address a “pressing need for a meaningful exchange of ideas by lawmakers on both sides of the political divide,” said opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in a press conference at Parliament.
However, DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang insisted it was not an “alternative Budget” but “a plan to meet the crisis of confidence on the economic front.”
Asked why it was not being brought to the Dewan Rakyat, he explained that “various proposals have already been put forward by other PR MPs, and other major proposals will be raised in the Dewan Rakyat.”
It proposes that economic growth be revised to 3.4 per cent per annum, as projected by the Malaysian Institute for Economic Research, instead of the 5.4 per cent as tabled in the government’s Budget Bill and that the Budget, which will be the country’s 12th deficit Budget in succession, targets a 3 per cent deficit rather than 3.6 per cent.
“Under the Barisan Nasional’s Budget and given the anticipated loss in commodity revenue, the government’s projection of 3.6 per cent deficit would be virtually impossible to attain,” said Anwar, the PKR de facto leader, with a slideshow presentation behind him forecasting over 5 per cent deficit.
Pas secretary-general Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar said the reduction in commodity revenue due to the fall in the prices of crude oil (from US$125 a barrel to US$75) and crude palm oil (RM3,000 a tonne to RM1,700) was a clear problem to “everyone except BN.”
PR’s projected revenue scaled down the BN’s RM176 billion projection by 11 per cent to RM157 billion but also said that measures could be implemented to reduce government operational expenditure by 15.5 per cent from RM154 billion to RM130 billion.
“The 20 per cent increase in expenditure... is a tell-tale sign of wastage and inefficiency,” Anwar said.
He insisted that RM10 billion could be saved by weeding out corruption alone and extra income could be generated by auctioning APs for imported cars.
The Permatang Pauh MP claimed that the 75,000 APs could fetch a market value of RM25,000 each, resulting in RM1.75 billion in revenue annually.
He added that mega projects such as the RM9 billion undersea cable-tracking project and RM15.2 billion high-speed broadband project “have got to be shelved.”
However, despite the PR proposal calling for these projects to be abandoned, it promised a new operational versus development ratio of expenditure from what it claimed was currently 74.9:25.1 under the BN to 71.6:28.4.
The RM51.7 billion — up 11.7 per cent from the BN’s RM46.3 billion — it proposes for development includes added expenditure on transportation, housing and education. -- MI
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