PAKATAN Harapan’s alternative budget is a repetition of old promises, said International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed.

He said the opposition coalition, among others, promised to abolish Goods and Services Tax (GST) and tolls, as well offer free higher education.

The latest alternative budget fell short in terms of substance, and the opposition was peddling rhetoric to mask its failure to come up with a credible economic agenda, Mustapa said.

“As a matter of fact, the abolition of GST will leave a big hole in the government’s revenue that needs to be filled up.

“Instead of sharing with us their plans to compensate this drop in revenue, they are only relying on the questionable assumption that a tax cut will result in higher consumption and tax collection,” he said.

Mustapa said an economic agenda would only be credible if the planned expenditures were backed with necessary revenue-generating measures.

“For a political coalition that keeps on spreading their unsubstantiated claims that Malaysia is heading towards bankruptcy under the Barisan Nasional government, they are actually the ones driving Malaysia into that direction with their fiscal irresponsibility,” he said.

He said the Budget 2018, to be tabled by Prime Minister Najib Razak in Parliament on Friday, would be a sound and responsible economic plan needed to elevate the country’s status to a high-income economy, in contrast to what the Opposition has to offer.

“I appeal to the objectivity of the public not to be deceived by the populist and unsustainable measures outlined in the alternative budget,” he said. – Bernama, October 25, 2017.