TODAY’S budget announced by Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz was an election budget while designed to lift the country’s economy, political observers said.

Analysts said the government led by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is trying to maintain the current momentum with numerous economic revival plans, as well as aid and subsidies particularly targeting the B40 group.

University of Tasmania Professor of Asian Studies James Chin told The Malaysian Insight that the budget was a populist election budget as every segment is getting a piece of the pie.

He said the government’s strategy to target women was clever, because many voters under the age of 21 who came out to vote in the Johor elections were women.

“Every group is getting something. Women, the M30 and B50 getting the most. The Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia or BKM schemes and programmes will account for 70-75% of voters.”

“This is a must do because the election is just around the corner. The government is trying to reach at least 65% of the population directly. I can say this is an Umno budget,” he said.

Tengku Zafrul, in tabling the Budget today, said the government will be allocating RM235 million to encourage more women to increase their business capacity and improve marketing strategies.

He said the funds would be made available through Semarak-Nita BSN, Tekunita Tekun, DanaNita Mara, and Biz Lady Bank Rakyat.

Tengku Zafrul said that as of October 2022, women represented 29% of the board of directors in the top 100 publicly listed companies.

Attempt to boost the economy

Meanwhile, Ilham Centre executive director Hisommudin Bakar felt the budget this year is an effort to resuscitate the economy.

However, he said that economic revival plans are still focused on subsidies.

“The focus is still for the B40 or some say now B50. The middle class or the M40 has not been addressed and that is why from our findings many M40 are still airing their grievances,” he said.

A mini-BN manifesto

Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara, described the budget as Barisan Nasional’s mini manifesto.

He said Tengku Zafrul could have ended his speech in half an hour but chose to explain in detail the incentives in effort to draw people’s attention to next year’s allocation.

“It was a long presentation, more than two hours. He went into details of each incentive which carries a positive impact to all aspects of life.”

“This can be considered as BN’s mini manifesto. It is clear that they want to maintain the momentum and this is why they reduced the tax, increased the BKM money and added some recovery plans,” he said.

Apart from women, the government has said that it will increase the salary of civil servants from grades 11 to 56 in 2023.

According to Tengku 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.

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%.

The government today unveiled the largest budget in the nation’s history, some RM372.3 billion.

This is a 12% increase from last year when RM332 billion was allocated. – October 7, 2022.