PAKATAN Harapan tabled a prudent budget as it cannot afford unnecessary spending, said Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The prime minister said the government wanted to fulfil the aspirations of the people but within its means.

“Our budget is not more than our earnings. We do not steal. We just do not spend money out of our means,” Dr Mahathir told reporters in Parliament after Budget 2019 was tabled.

He also commented on the 1Malaysia Development Bhd scandal, which PH must now address.

“There are no loans to make new companies that we can steal money from. We borrow money to pay up the debts so that the interest rate becomes less. We are very careful, we expand what we can,” Dr Mahathir said.

The Langkawi MP said even though there are risks of being downgraded by credit ratings agencies, the Finance Ministry has taken precautions to prevent it.

“There were measures taken to correct the impact of that deficit… we were very careful about how money is spent although the budget is more than the previous year.

“We are also carrying the burden of having to repay debts incurred by the previous government,” Dr Mahathir said.

He also said Malaysia should not forsake its developmental budget just because there was debt inherited from the previous government.

“We could reduce it by not having any development expenditure but we want to carry out development also.

“We fix it as much as we can. We are not borrowing money just to have a big budget,” Dr Mahathir said.

The biggest allocation went to the Education Ministry with RM60.2 billion, which Dr Mahathir said was necessary to lift the standards of the education system.

“Education is extremely important, I wanted to be education minister, but they didn’t allow me.

“But still, we need to educate our people because the knowledge field has changed considerably.

“Now, we have to learn about IT, technology, science, maths, algorithms… all these things we need to know or we will be left behind.” – November 2, 2018.