PUTRAJAYA: Budget 2020 will focus on the government’s shift towards high-quality growth to achieve developed nation status.
“At the same time, it is important that the growth must be felt by all segments of our society,” Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng (pix) said today.
The Budget themed ‘Shared Prosperity: Sustainable and inclusive growth towards High Income Economy’ will be tabled in Parliament on Oct 11.
He said inclusive growth involves a vision of adequate medical care, good education, a useful and remunerative job, a decent home, and freedom from unfair competition and monopolies.
Sustainable growth must be private sector driven with the government providing the environment of a well-regulated ecosystem based on the rule of law, he added.
Kim said the loss of RM150 billion to 1MDB has affected the government’s ability to spend.
“No country can afford the loss of RM150 billion and not be hurt by it,” he said in his keynote address at the 2020 Budget Consultation here.
He pointed out that the country had lost RM52 billion to 1MDB. Other scandals related to it had drained RM50 billion from the government’s coffers. Graft scandals such as Tabung Haji and Felda drained another RM50 billion.
“Despite abolishing the GST and replacing it with the SST, the government of Malaysia has not gone bankrupt. We are still able to afford to pay our civil servants and carry out development to ensure economic growth is at a sustainable place,” he added.
