KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 — Dewan Rakyat today passed a Mini Budget totalling RM107,718,676,650 after Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim moved one out of three motions for the matter in order to keep the government running.
Anwar tabled the first motion under the Consolidated Fund (Expenditure on Account) Act 2022 which will come into force on January 1, 2023, aimed at paying emoluments for civil servants and other government dues.
Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan later moved the second and third motions involving the balance of proceeds of the Malaysian Government Investment Issue (MGII).
The second and third motions proposed that a total of RM31,834 million of the balance of proceeds of the MGII as well as the balance of proceeds of the Malaysian Islamic Treasury Bills (MITB) of RM3,211 million for 2022 be transferred into the Development Fund.
They also proposed a total of RM16,200 million, which is the balance of proceeds of MGII for 2022 be transferred to the Covid-19 Fund in accordance with Section 3(1) of the Government Funding Act 1983 and Section 4(2) of the Temporary Measures for Government Funding (Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19)) 2020 Act.
Budget 2023, which was prepared and tabled by the previous government led by Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, has not been approved or debated in the Dewan Rakyat following the dissolution of Parliament on October 10.
The motions today are crucial as the Budget 2023, also called Supply Bill for 2023, will not be passed by Parliament before January 1, 2023, making it necessary to make provisions for government expenditures for next year from January 1, 2023, until the Supply Bill becomes law and comes into effect.
Anwar had also via Section 4 of the Development Fund Act 1996 suggested that RM55,959,213,200 is issued out of the Fund for 2023, for immediate expenditures.
During his speech, Anwar also announced the retention of several initiatives announced by the previous administration, bearing public welfare in mind.
"With the issue of dropout generation following the recent pandemic crisis, it is important to prepare children with the appropriate school equipment. In addition to the expenditure requirements for the supplementary food plan and the purchase of textbooks, the government agrees to channel the early school assistance of RM150 to all students, regardless of parents' income limit in January 2023.
"The youths also need continued employment opportunities to earn a living. Driven by the implementation of a programme that recognises salaries between RM1,500 to RM2,100 the government will provide 50,000 contract career opportunities including 35,000 by government-linked companies through the MySTEP programme for 2023," Anwar said.
Anwar said that the government will also continue to ensure the welfare of small rubber farmers during this monsoon season and that the government has so far distributed the monsoon season assistance for the months of November and December to nearly 320,000 small rubber farmers, with RM600 each.
He said that the government also plans to distribute an additional aid of RM200 to small rubber farmers for the month of January.
The Mini Budget will be in force until Budget 2023 is re-tabled and passed in Parliament.
On October 7, Ismail Sabri’s government unveiled a record RM372.340 billion federal spending plan for next year, surpassing this year’s Budget by RM40 billion.
In Budget 2023, as much as RM94.3 billion was allocated for development expenditure, the highest to date; the allocation for 2022 was RM71.2 billion.
