FINANCE Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz is set to table the Perikatan Nasional government’s maiden budget at 4pm today.

The budget is expected to roll out incentives for individuals and businesses to overcome the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. It will also aim to kickstart and hasten the economic recovery.

The budget will complement the RM305 billion provided since March this year in Covid-19-related financial assistance under various Prihatin and Penjana initiatives.

It will also likely bolster Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s bid to hold early elections.

In another Covid-19-forced change, only 80 MPs will be allowed to attend the sessions from today. This is to curb the spread of the virus.

Forty-one of the MPs will be from the government side with the remaining 39 from the opposition. However, all 221 MPs will be allowed to vote on the budget.

The Malaysian Insight reports live the budget speech:

6.29pm: Public sector incentives include:

* Hourly allowance for fire brigade services raised from RM6 per hour to RM8.

* One-off payment of RM500 for retired police personnel who are recipients of the Pingat Jasa Pahlawan Negara.

* Special payment of RM600 to public service officers below Grade 56.

* One-off payment of RM300 for pensioners and veterans.

6.18pm: RM5 per month travel pass cards for pupils (standard 1 to Form 6) and the disabled using the Kommuter in Klang Valley, northern komuter, train service between Kuala Lipis and Tumpat and train services between Beaufort and Tenom.

6.14pm: To encourage home ownership:

* Stamp-duty exemption for property below RM500,000 for sales and purchase agreements dated January 1, 2021-December 31, 2025. Limited to first property.

* Stamp-duty exemption for property below RM500,000 for sales and purchase agreements and transfer deeds dated January 1, 2021-December 31, 2025 for contractors and buyers of abandoned projects.

6.09pm: RM1,000 per month incentive for three months for those who hire fresh graduates in their apprenticeship/internship programmes. Employers can also claim a grant of up to RM4,000 for their training programmes.

One-off RM50 credit into 18-20-year-old’s e-wallets.

Lifestyle tax relief increased from RM2,500 to RM3,000.

6.02pm: Allowances for Guru Takmir raised from RM800 to RM900 per month.

One-off special payment of RM500 to mosque workers (imam, bilal, syiak) and religious school teachers.

5.59pm: Tax relief of up to RM3,000 for contributions towards private retirement schemes until 2025 to encourage more takers of insurance schemes.

EPF contributors allowed to withdraw from Account 2 for critical disease and life insurance plans.

5.55pm: Socso’s wage subsidy at RM600 extended three months, especially for the tourism and retail sectors for those earning under RM4,000 per month. The ceiling number of workers who qualify per company will be raised from RM200 to RM500.

5.49pm: RM2 billion for Socso’s Penjana Kerjaya (rehiring scheme) and start the National Job Council. Other incentives include:

* 40% of monthly wage for workers earning RM1,500 to RM4,000.

* Employers given extra 20% of the wages for hiring the disabled and those retrenched during Covid-19 pandemic

* Special incentive of 40% to encourage the hiring of local workers in the construction and agriculture industries, a and 20% for local worker who replaces a foreign worker.

All three schemes are effective six months.

* Training costs for workers hired under the Penjana Kerjaya scheme at RM7,000.

5.35pm: Incentives for rubber tree smallholders raised from RM150 million to RM300 million.

* RM1.7 billion incentives and subsidies for fishermen and farmers. RM570 million for padi price subsidy.

* RM960 million for padi farmers and RM40 million for hill padi farmers.

* Living allowances for fishermen raised from RM250 to RM300 per month starting 2021.

5.29pm: Socso’s unemployment benefit will be extended for three months whereby 80% of previous salary can be taken in the first month and then 50% (month 2-6) and 30% for three months. RM150 million allocated to assist 130,000 jobless.



Tax exemption for those who have lost their jobs during the Covid-19 pandemic raised from RM10,000 to RM20,000 for two assessment years.

5.23pm: Individual tax rate lowered by 1% for those with taxable income of RM50,000-RM70,000.

EPF contributions reduced from 11% to 9% starting January 2021 for 12 months to increase their take-home pay.

In April, EPF allowed contributors to withdraw RM500 per month for 12 months from their Account 1 to help with the Covid-19 fallout. A second scheme allows contributors to withdraw RM500 per month to a total of RM6,000. Contributors can apply from January.

5.14pm: Bantuan Prihatin Rakyat (BPR) to replace Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH), with the following:

* Households earning less than RM2,500 per month and have one child will receive RM1,200. Households with more than two children to receive RM1,800.



* Households earning between RM2,500-RM4,000 and have one child will receive RM800. Those with two children or more will receive RM1,200.



* Households earning RM4,000-RM5,000 and have one child will receive RM500 while those with two children or more will receive RM750.

* Singles earning less than RM2,500 will get RM350. The age requirement for this will be lowered to 21 instead of 40.

5.06pm: Social welfare aid for the disabled raised from RM250 to RM300; senior citizens, the disabled and chronic illness patients (RM350 to RM500).

The disabled allowance raised from RM400 to RM450. Aid for hardcore poor families with children raised to RM100 per child to a maximum of RM450 per family. RM150 per child aged 7-18 or RM200 for children under 6 to a maximum of RM1,000.

4.55pm: For B40 group, RM50 voucher to buy life and personal accident insurance.

4.53pm: Proposal to raise serious medical expenses tax deduction from RM6,000 to RM8,000 and raise the tax deduction for medical examination from RM500 to RM1,000.

Tax deduction for medical expenses and special needs for parents upped from RM5,000 to RM8,000.

4.48pm: RM1.8 billion allocated for the various movement-control restrictions and health items.

* RM475 million to purchase Covid-19 test kits for Health Ministry, RM318 million for sanitisers, PPE.

* RM150 million for the National Security Council and RM50 million for universities to purchase medicines and lab equipment.

4.43pm: As Covid-19 is expected to continue until 2022, the government will raise the limit for the Covid-19 fund by RM20 billion to RM65 billion. This will be used to finance the Prihatin package.

4.41pm: GDP for 2020 has been revised to contract by 4.5%. For 2021, GDP is expected to recover and grow between 6.5%-7.5%.

4.38pm: Besides the various stimulus packages, Parliament has also raised the statutory debt ceiling to 60% from 55% (of GDP). Parliament also approved a RM45 billion for the Covid-19 fund.

4.34pm: Following Covid-19, the government announced the Penjana stimulus package worth RM35 billion and Prihatin package worth RM10 billion.

Overall, the stimulus packages are worth RM305 billion or 20.7% of GDP.

The counter-cyclical measures, aimed at reducing the effects of Covid-19 pandemic on the economy, has seen GDP recover slowly from -28.6% in April 2020 to -3.2% in June. Early estimates show encouraging signs of recovery from July to September.

4.23pm: Session resumes.

Speaker reminds MPs that exception today for the budget speech but Dewan will be limited to 80 MPs from Monday.

Tengku Zafrul begins tabling Budget 2021.

4.13pm: Takiyuddin Hassan (Kota Baru-PN): We already passed a motion yesterday. If we want to change this now, we have to pass another motion. MPs should have spoken up yesterday.

Lim Guan Eng (Bagan-PH): It’s a small matter and you can revise this today.

Speaker: Ok. I will invite all the other MPs outside to come in.

Speaker adjourns Dewan Rakyat for 15 minutes to allow other MPs to enter Dewan Rakyat.

4.10pm: Bung Moktar: “Dewan is so empty now and gives the impression that we are under some kind of emergency.”

Azhar: But this was already agreed yesterday.

Other MPs: This is why we are asking for speaker to reconsider this. It’s only for one hour anyway.

4.08pm: Azhar stands firm as the decision to limit to 80MPs was decided with all the party whips.

“I have denied the permission for some deputy ministers to attend today, too,” says Azhar.

Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Pasir Salak-BN) also supports. “There is a lot of space inside Dewan Rakyat.”

4.06pm: Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (Permatang Pauh-PH) requests Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun to allow MPs outside to listen to Budget 2021 in the Dewan Rakyat. Bung Moktar Radin (Kinabatangan-BN) supports the suggestion.

4pm: Zafrul takes the floor to table Budget 2020. – November 6, 2020.