PRIME Minister Muhyiddin Yassin made several numerical errors during his special announcement yesterday on the recovery movement-control order, admits Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Aziz.

PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail had asked in the Dewan Rakyat if Muhyiddin was trying to deceive the public.

“In this confusion minister, this Dewan deserves to know the exact data as this gives the real picture. Does the minister agree for these numbers to be scrutinised?

“These numbers came from the prime minister himself in yesterday’s announcement,” Saifuddin asked during the ministerial question time in Parliament today.

Tengku Zafrul admitted Muhyiddin had the numbers wrong in yesterday’s announcement and proceeded to correct him.

“Regarding the numbers which were highlighted earlier from the PM’s speech, there are numbers that are inaccurate.

“I am certain an amendment would be announced by the prime minister’s office. Maybe I can give the right number in this Dewan,” the senator said.

Muhyiddin yesterday claimed 1.4 million e-hailing drivers benefited from a one-off payment of RM500 which totalled RM34 million.

Today, the prime minister’s office clarified the figure and said there are 68,336 e-hailing drivers in the country who received the RM500 allowance.

It said RM34 million was paid out to them.

It said 37,127 taxi drivers, tourist guides and tour bus drivers received RM600 and RM22.2 million was paid to this group.

The wage-subsidy scheme paid out RM7.4 billion to 313,000 employers, benefitting 2.5 million workers in the country.

Former Transport Minister Anthony Loke was the first to highlight the irregularity in a Facebook post last night.

Loke said a prime minister’s televised speech was a serious affair and the facts and figures given must be accurate and should not mislead the public. – July 21, 2020.