Malaysia - Malaysia PM likely to unveil people-friendly budget

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib-Razak is expected to unveil a people friendly budget on October 7 to boost his chances in the coming general election.

This will be the third budget Mr Najib is tabling since he took office in April 2009.

Many expect it to be his last budget before he leads the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition to the country's 13th general election.

RAM Holdings' chief economist Dr Yeah Kim Leng, said: "In a a way, it's a budget that will determine whether Barisan will go into the election with a budget that can boost their chances of gaining a two-third majority. We expect a budget that will produce a conducive environment to boost his election chances."

Economists say The main thrust of the latest budget will be to counter external headwinds by boosting domestic demand while making sure the people are cushioned against the rising cost of living.

Mr Najib is expected to dish out various income stimulus packages including food stamps and cash vouchers for utilities to lower income households.

The middle income group is expected to get further tax reliefs.

The country's 1.3 million civil servants, long regarded as the vote bank for the government, are counting on higher wages and better year end bonuses.

Dr Yeah said: "This has a very strong impact on boosting domestic demand because of the large spending propensity of civil servants. We do see as both meeting social objective as well as boosting domestic economic."

Mr Najib's administration is also expected to speed up the various economic and government transformation programs, to generate growth and create jobs.

Various mega infrastructure projects are expected to get off the ground next year as the government strives to achieve an average growth of six per cent per year in order to become a high income nation by 2020

The opposition alliance Pakatan Rakyat meanwhile has come up with their own alternative or shadow budget for next year by proposing direct handouts worth over US$4 billion to help lower income group and civil servants to cushion the impact of higher cost of living as Pakatan seeks to impress the people ahead of a general election widely expected within months.

- CNA/fa


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