BR1M increase in Budget 2015 ‘wasteful and unsustainable’

Selangor Menteri Besar Mohamed Azmin Ali said the 2015 Budget allocations announced by the prime minister today was hardly people-centric as it focused on unsustainable and wasteful economic activities.

"It does not encourage the people's economy to flourish. What we need here is quality education, strong framing to promote innovation in driving the people-centric economy," he said at the Parliament lobby today after the budget was presented.

A people-driven economy needed quality education, training and "aggressive innovation", Azmin said, but Budget 2015 had only seen an increase in handouts such as the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M), which was not sustainable in the long run.

"Unfortunately the prime minister's budget mainly focuses on unsustainable and wasteful economic activities that does not promote the people's economy," said Azmin, who is also the Gombak MP.

"We also see that Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM) was only given an allocation of RM50 million compared to subsidies given to other big companies.

"So it does not reflect the commitment of the federal government to really shape a people's economy," Azmin (pic, left) added.

BR1M was increased by RM300, RM200 and RM50, depending on category of household incomes. Households earning less than RM3,000 are now entitled to RM950, those earning between RM3,000 and RM4,000 will get RM750, and singles aged 21 and above and earning not more than RM2,000 will get RM350.
These increments will cost the government RM4.9 billion.

Reacting to the increase, PKR's Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin said he wondered if this would further upset former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
"BR1M is up, I wonder (if) this will anger Mahathir further. Reality is no matter how much goodies gov (the government) gives, once #GST kicks in, life will be painful. Good luck!" Sim wrote in a text message to the media.

Dr Mahathir had recently slammed Najib's administration for spending so much on BR1M. He said the handout should be scrapped because it caused recipients to become dependent.

Sim also said "the government is in panic" with the "goodies" it was dishing out to the people.

"My immediate response about Budget 2015 is that the government is in panic. Therefore, they have continued to increase the goodies for fear of backlash from voters.

"Giving more goodies means less spending for development that will create a conducive environment for jobs and economic activities. Development spending has dropped to about 18% in 2015," he said in the message.

The development expenditure is RM50.5 billion, just 18% of the RM273.9 billion allocated in the whole budget.

-tmi