Budget 2026, which will be tabled by the Prime Minister on Oct 10, will incorporate key elements of the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP).
Speaking to reporters after launching the Public Finance and Economy Week (MEKA) 2025 in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday (Sept 30), Finance Ministry II Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan said the budget will carry out reforms to strengthen housing, education and health.
On narrowing the budget deficit, he said the government has made good progress by addressing wastage and leakages.
00:07Can you give us an idea of what is the government's focus in?
00:13Next week, on the 10th, Prime Minister will be presenting the budget to Parliament, right?
00:20And this is the first year of the RMK13.
00:24So we will, of course, make sure that the plans that we have laid down under RMK13 is among the key elements that is incorporated in the budget.
00:34And of course, the focus of the budget is actually framed against RMK13 and the kerangka ekonomi medani.
00:45Is there any possibility that government will increase the syntax?
00:49That's why you have to do it when the government is made by the government.
00:56The important thing is that we are together to make a place to the place.
01:01RMK13 has given a 7th, which is clear for everyone to see what the priority is to put to the country.
01:12That's why we must reformise it to improve in the sector of health, in the sector of education, in the sector of health.
01:24There are a lot of agenda that we are going to do.
01:26And insyaAllah, Planjauan 2026 will enter the elements of this to help the movement, to build the movement in Malaysia.
01:36It's the same as the theme of Melaka, the development.
01:39Dr. Sri, this year was a major year for the government in terms of reforming the petrol subsidies.
01:44It has done that, right?
01:46So, are there any clues as to how you will try to narrow the budget deficit for next budget?
01:53I think we've done well because the whole government has worked very, very hard to embrace a much stronger discipline.
02:01Similar to the framework that we said, Tata Kelola is an important element to do.
02:06And when we tabled the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2023, we ensured that fiscal deficit was a target that we have to bring down below 3% in the medium term.
02:19And we've made a good progress.
02:21If you go back about four years ago, fiscal deficit over GDP was about 6.1%.
02:27Last year, we came down to 4.1% already.
02:30And insyaAllah this year, we will try to get to 3.8%.
02:34So, we are on track to actually achieve the targets that we've done.
02:37This is through what we've looked at in terms of making sure that we are removing wastages that happen and also by re-looking four principles.
02:50When we look at subsidy, it is important that the right people within this country receive the subsidy.
02:56That is a given.
02:58But we must cut out when there are leakages, when the subsidy doesn't go to the unintended basis that we remove it back.
03:04And then when we are able to do that, we are able to do two things.
03:08One is actually reduce the fiscal deficit because the expenditure gets less.
03:13But the second is also reuse some of the savings also in order to increase delivery to the rakyat.
03:19We've seen a government do that in terms of increasing the social assistance, whether that is SARA, penghargaan SARA or the SDR.
03:29We've seen that also in terms of the Bantuan Warga Emas which has also gone up throughout a few years.
03:35And putting emphasis in terms of providing better infrastructure to the country.
03:42So improving schools, improving hospitals remain the core priority and we will do it based on the penjimatan that we actually get.
03:59There's an increase in the energy.
04:02And this is the west side from the Pantuan Warga Emas.
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