THE government will increase the salary of civil servants from grades 11 to 56 in 2023, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said during the tabling of the 2023 Budget today. 

According to Zafrul, they will receive a salary raise of RM100 next year while civil servants below grade 56 will be offered a one-off payment of RM700. 

For a Hari Raya Aidilfitri incentive, the government has agreed to provide civil servants with financial assistance of RM600, which will be paid by March 2023. 

Tengku Zafrul today announced one of the biggest budgets in the history of Malaysia, allocating RM372.3 billion for next year. 

This is a 12% increase from the previous year when RM332 billion was allocated. 

The three top recipients for Budget 2023 are the Finance Ministry (RM67.2 billion), Education Ministry (RM55.6 billion) and Health Ministry (RM36.1 billion), constituting 43.3% of total expenditure. 

A sum of RM272.3 billion has been allocated for the government’s operational expenditure, up 16.6% from RM233.5 billion in Budget 2022.  

For the development expenditure, the government has allocated RM95.1 billion, compared with RM75 billion last year, up 26.8%. 

In terms of the government’s projected deficit, it stands at 5.5%. – October 7, 2022.