KOTA KINABALU: Sabah UMNO described the 2019 Budget as the Pakatan Harapan’s “populist” budget.
Its Liaison Chairman, Datuk Seri Panglima Haji Hajiji Haji Noor, said it is not a budget that friendly and inclusive for all walks of the rakyat.
“The 2019 Budget tabled by Finance Minister, Lim Guan Eng, is more of a populist budget, which is imbalance as many segments of the community did not get to benefit it.”
“There is nothing that can be proud of in the 2019 Budget, which even deny the rights and entitlements of Sabah and Sarawak to get the revenue that appropriately should be returned to both states,” he said.
Hajiji, who is also Sulaman State Assemblyman, said the 2019 Budget is more concentrated on the B40 group, while there were nothing interesting for those in the middle and upper income groups.
He said there was no new initiative specifically meant to assist the people, especially those in the rural area and the urban poors.
The Bantuan Sara Hidup (BSH) proposed in the Budget also looks similar to the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) that was introduced during the Barisan Nasional era, he said, adding that however only 4.1 million people will receive BSH if compared to nearly 6.5 million people who enjoyed BR1M at the time when BN was in power.
He said the PH Government decision to float the price of petrol RON 95 based on Automatic Price Mechanism (APM) also differ from what it has promised that is to lower the petrol prices.
He said the farmers, breeders, fishermen and smallholders were also not given appropriate attention by the PH because many of the assistance they received during the previous BN Government era were not mentioned in the 2019 Budget.
Hajiji said the 2019 Budget also did not mention about allocations for the airport and port transhipment hub expansion projects in Sabah, while the Industry 4.0 Policy Action Plan did not mention on how many the number of small and medium enterprises in (SMEs) in Sabah will be involved.-By LSK/BNN
