THE opposition today accused Pakatan Harapan of drawing up a “capitalist” budget that prioritises the rich and the corporate sector.

An example of the government favouring the rich in Budget 2020 was the full income tax exemption for those who open international theme parks, opposition leader Ismail Sabri Yaakob told the Dewan Rakyat today.

“This is a capitalist budget which ignores rural Malaysia. The rich are given priority, the poor and needy are ignored,” he said when debating the Supply Bill in the house today.

As the opposition leader, Ismail gets time to debate the budget tabled by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng last Friday.

Ismail, who is Bera MP, also disapproved of several incentives listed in the budget which were also “capitalist”.

This included the annual RM1 billion in investment incentives to attract global start-ups and Fortune 500 companies, as well as the lowering of the threshold price from RM1 million to RM600,000 for foreigners who wished to buy unsold property in Malaysia.

Ismail said there were many weaknesses in the national budget and the government had failed to plan for an anticipated worsening of the economic downturn.

“Budget 2020 has again made the mistake of the first budget of setting the government’s projected income at higher world oil prices, when lower oil prices are predicted next year”. – October 14, 2019.