THERE has been much talk about where the funds in the recently announced stimulus package to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 come from.

Don’t get me wrong; doctors, nurses and other frontliners need tools of the trade and protective gear on an extremely urgent basis, and to provide this, the government must spend.

Yesterday, the prime minister announced a RM250 billion stimulus package. The finance minister said it is not Budget 2020, but a stimulus package.

So, where are all these monies that the government intends to spend coming from?

Article 97 of the federal constitution states:

Consolidated Funds

97. (1) All revenues and monies, howsoever raised or received by the federation, shall, subject to the provisions of this constitution and of federal law, be paid into and form one fund, to be known as the Federal Consolidated Fund.

So, all taxpayer monies go into this consolidated fund.

Article 104 of the constitution states:

Withdrawals from Consolidated Fund

104. (1) Subject to Clause (2), no monies shall be withdrawn from the consolidated fund unless they are:

(a) charged on the consolidated fund; or,

(b) authorised to be issued by the Supply Act; or,

(c) authorised to be issued under Article 102.

(2) Clause (1) does not apply to any such sums as mentioned in Clause (3) of Article 99.

(3) No monies shall be withdrawn from the consolidated fund except in the manner provided by federal law.

Article 104(2)(b) relates to the Supply Act. Parliament has already passed the Supply Act 2020 ( A1608) for a sum of approximately RM173 billion. This is expenditure for all the relevant ministries, government bodies, etc. The Health Ministry has been allocated RM29.7 billion for 2020.

Article 104(2)(c) relates to Parliament’s power to authorise expenditure for an unusual, urgent situation – like now, during this pandemic. Parliament has not sat, for whatever reason, so it has not authorised a law for this situation.

Article 104(3) expressly states that no monies shall be withdrawn from the consolidated fund except in the manner provided by federal law.

To date, Parliament has not convened. It has not passed any law to authorise the withdrawal of monies from the consolidated fund for this stimulus package.

That begs the question: where is this RM250 billion coming from?

It cannot legally and constitutionally be from the consolidated fund, simply because this has not been authorised by Parliament.

But logically and naturally, it will come from this very fund. Where else is the government going to get the funding? If that is the case, is that not a blatant violation of Article 104(3) of the constitution?

It is humbly submitted that the government urgently heeds the words of Professor Shad Saleem Faruqi: “Whatever path is chosen, the constitution must prevail in times of stability as well as crisis.”

On that note, it is only appropriate for Parliament to immediately sit and ensure the legality of this stimulus package by way of debate and passing a law for the expenditure.

One cannot simply say this is not the time for Parliament oversight, and expect to get away with it.

The learned Shad added: “I can think of only one exception: if there is already a contingency fund authorised by Parliament under Article 103(1), then the government can dip into that as an urgency, and then seek retrospective authority from Parliament under Article 103(2).”

Please note that the scholar qualified this by saying if there is already a contingency fund.

Perhaps, the government should inform the public as to the source of the expenditure in these unpredictable times.

On another note, could someone look into the supply of bread? Many are looking into their fridge and realising that they have run out of it, and supply is scarce. – March 28, 2020.

* Puthan Perumal reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.