BUDGET 2023 will have to be tabled again, but any changes will depend on the outcome of the general election, experts said.

They said the current budget is not null and void. It simply hasn’t been approved.

Malaysian Centre for Constitutionalism and Human Rights director Fahri Azzat said if Umno and Barisan Nasional win, they will most likely table the same budget.

“In Umno’s mind, the thinking is it will come back and be the government that approves it, why else would it table a budget and then call for the dissolution?” Fahri told The Malaysian Insight.

“If Umno wins, it will table the same budget. That’s why it’s called it an election budget. It has become bait for Umno.

“The dissolution also shows the huge amount of pressure brought to bear on the prime minister, which is why it doesn’t make sense and the almost bipolar nature (tabling budget and then dissolving parliament) shows the tension.

“This is not in the interests of the public. Voters are already rebelling, we don’t know what they feel about it.”

The constitutional lawyer said in the event that another coalition takes over the government, it will come up with a new budget.

“If someone else wins, there is no way it will table the same budget.”

“If another government comes in or it doesn’t approve the previous budget, then what was the point of this? What was the cost to prepare it? They are just spending money we don’t have,” he said.

Former Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof said the budget has to be tabled again.

“Technically, the supply bill has only had its first reading after the reading of the budget speech.

“Once parliament is dissolved, it lapses. The budget will have to be tabled again,” he said.

No budget, no money

Salawati Mat Basir, an international law expert at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, said without a budget, there will be no money for government expenditure.

“The effect is we cannot use the money, we cannot proceed with anything unless we get a government and the new government has to table everything again, so it has been frozen,” she said.

“The impact is that it will delay the development of (infrastructures) especially roads, hospitals and schools.”

Salawati said the winning coalition will have to decide whether to proceed with the ready budget or re-evaluate things.

“The new cabinet – especially the finance and economy ministers – will have to sit down and see how much money is left, how we can use that money to give development to our country and also for its needs.

“In other words, you need to do it all over again. It’s better not to present the budget actually, because it looks like you give ‘sweets’ to the people and suddenly it is now all gone,” she said.

On Friday, the government announced its biggest ever budget, allocating RM372 billion for next year.

Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz dismissed claims that the budget would be redundant should Ismail decide to dissolve parliament before the federal spending plan is passed.

He said it can be tabled again after the election is held, citing the 1999 snap polls as precedent.

The highlight includes RM2,500 for households with five children or more and incomes of less than RM2,500 per month under the Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia scheme.

A 2% income tax cut for the RM50,000 to RM100,000 income bracket was also introduced, which means the mid-income group gets up to RM1,000 in tax savings, and the high-income group gets up to RM250.

The M40 e-Pemula Initiative will see e-wallet credit worth RM100 for the M40 group with annual income below RM100,000, which will target 8 million individuals.

An allocation of RM55 billion for subsidies, social assistance and incentives has also been set aside.

On Monday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced that parliament had been dissolved, sending the country to the polls.

A general election must be held within 60 days of this date. – October 12, 2022.