IT is wrong to compare Sarawak’s RM1.74 billion allocation to mitigate the effects of Covid-19 with that of Singapore’s SG$193 billion (RM591 billion), said state second finance minister Douglas Uggah Embas.

He said, compared with other states in the peninsula and even Sabah, Sarawak had allocated far more funds to mitigate the effects of the pandemic.

Uggah, who is also a deputy chief minister, said the RM1.74 billion was not only over and above the RM305 billion allocation provided by the federal government for the Prihatin and Penjana packages, it was much more than what wealthy states like Penang and Selangor had allocated for themselves.

He said to his predecessor, Wong Soon Koh, and other lawmakers in the state assembly today that Penang had allocated only RM151 million for the implementation of various measures to soften the blow of the pandemic while Selangor allocated only RM272 million.

Sabah, he said, had only allocated RM210 million while Johor, RM174.5 million.

Uggah, who took over from Wong when he resigned from the cabinet in July last year, said the state’s 2021 budget is providing “large sum of allocation to implement various measures for the wellbeing of the rakyat during the pandemic”.

“We will also continue to leverage on the state’s alternative funding initiatives to complement the state development budget,” he said in response to Wong’s debate yesterday calling for the state to spend more to assist Sarawakians during the current pandemic.

“This is necessary to fund major infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges; provision of water and electricity supplies; telecommunication and digital economy projects,” he said.

Uggah also said the increase in public spending in the state’s 2021 budget reflected the state government’s commitment towards meeting the socioeconomic needs of Sarawakians.

He said, among other things, the huge spending on development expenditure will act as a stimulus to cushion the economic slowdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. – November 13, 2020.