Civil servants find Budget 2019 wanting

SM Amin SM Amin Updated 7 years ago · Published on 2 Nov 2018 9:28PM · 3 Comments

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad (centre), Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (right) and Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng (left) arriving at Parliament before the tabling of Budget 2019 today. Civil servants are not finding the budget attractive as it does not benefit them much. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Seth Akmal, November 2, 2018.

THE Budget 2019 that was tabled today was not attractive enough for some civil servants as it did not address all the issues that they faced.

Speaking to The Malaysian Insight, they said the budget tabled by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng did not address issues such as affordable housing and rising cost of living.

For Mustafar Hamid, 38, civil servants were still pained by the Pakatan Harapan government’s decision after GE14 to cancel the yearly salary increment, which was to have taken effect in July, as part of an austerity drive.

He said the special one-off payment of RM500 for civil servants of Grade 54 and below announced in Budget 2019 was nothing special as this payment had been given in previous budgets as well.

“Although this amount helps with our preparation for the children’s schooling, it does not help us in a big way in terms of managing our cost of living.

“The annual salary increment would have been more beneficial for us in handling cost of living issues,” he said when contacted.

Another civil servant, Zainal Ahmad, who works in Putrajaya, said the RM500 special payment was just a government cover to please the civil servants after cancelling their pay increment.

“The RM500 special payment is just a populist sweetener to replace the salary increment which was stopped,” he said.

Asyraf Nordin, meanwhile, was not impressed with the government’s intention to assist civil servants acquire their homes by getting the Public Sector Housing Financing Board to extend the loan repayment period from 30 to 35 years for the first loan, and from 25 to 30 years for the second loan.

He said the main issue was the non-affordability of new houses for civil servants.

Asyraf said average house prices in the Klang Valley was around RM400,000 with a monthly repayment of about RM1,500. This amount, he said, was almost half the salary of Grade 41 officers, or the full salary of Grade 19 personnel.

“How does the extension of the repayment period is going to help civil servants?”

But Naemah Iskandar welcomed the repayment extension as it would allow civil servants like herself to own homes. – November 2, 2018.

Sign up or sign in here to comment.

Comments

  • Why do civil servants need extra RM 500/- to prepare for their children's schooling when they should be saving from their salaries every month for this and for other purposes? They are not exactly living from hand to mouth compared to the non civil servants who work hard and save for the future.

    Posted 7 years ago by The Rover · Reply

  • What is this fixation with buying a new property? There are plenty of vacant properties on the market at much less than the price of a new one. Refurbishment costs less than buying a new property.

    Posted 7 years ago by Malaysia New hope · Reply

  • Where do the civil servants expect the money to come from for their salary increment? Another Saudi donation? First, improve your productivity and integrity. Second, rent a property if you can't afford to buy one. Third, spend less money on non-essential expenses. Lastly, be loyal to the government of the day and consider your position as one of trust and public service. Be grateful that the government did not reduce the size of the 1.6 million strong civil service.

    Posted 7 years ago by Gerard Lourdesamy · Reply