Anwar calls for confidence vote against Perikatan in Parliament after Malaysia’s credit downgrade
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Anwar said the confidence vote should be held immediately after debates on Budget 2021 end. — Picture by Yusof Mat Isa
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7 — Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today proposed a confidence vote to be tabled in Parliament against the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government, questioning its ability to lead Malaysia competitively in a post-Covid economy.
The PKR president said the confidence motion was necessary after international credit rating agency Fitch lowered Malaysia’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating from A- to BBB+ last week.
While Malaysia was accorded a stable outlook, the ratings agency commented that the PN government’s thin two-seat parliamentary majority implies persistent uncertainty about the country’s future policies.
Anwar said Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz had failed to address these matters and accused the ex-banker of being “dismissive” of Fitch’s views instead.
“This is, of course, a concern and we have a statement to say the focus of the criticism and the valuation we face is on the issue of stability and governance and this was not addressed by the minister of finance.
“He was very dismissive. It is very unfortunate, very political in his remarks, lack of focus and professionalism on his part.
“So we think that this must be addressed because it affects the economy adversely and this calls for a vote of confidence on the government,” Anwar told reporters in Parliament today after the Dewan Rakyat sitting ended for the day.
The Port Dickson MP said the confidence vote should be held immediately after debates on Budget 2021 end.
“The government must seriously allow this and the Speaker must have the courage to respect Parliamentary procedures and demands,’’ he said.
He said that if the matter was not resolved, Malaysia’s credit ratings could decline further, impacting its economic prospects.
In its downgrade, Fitch said the revision was primarily driven by the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Malaysia’s fiscal position and the ongoing domestic political situation.
The PKR president said the confidence motion was necessary after international credit rating agency Fitch lowered Malaysia’s long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating from A- to BBB+ last week.
While Malaysia was accorded a stable outlook, the ratings agency commented that the PN government’s thin two-seat parliamentary majority implies persistent uncertainty about the country’s future policies.
Anwar said Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz had failed to address these matters and accused the ex-banker of being “dismissive” of Fitch’s views instead.
“This is, of course, a concern and we have a statement to say the focus of the criticism and the valuation we face is on the issue of stability and governance and this was not addressed by the minister of finance.
“He was very dismissive. It is very unfortunate, very political in his remarks, lack of focus and professionalism on his part.
“So we think that this must be addressed because it affects the economy adversely and this calls for a vote of confidence on the government,” Anwar told reporters in Parliament today after the Dewan Rakyat sitting ended for the day.
The Port Dickson MP said the confidence vote should be held immediately after debates on Budget 2021 end.
“The government must seriously allow this and the Speaker must have the courage to respect Parliamentary procedures and demands,’’ he said.
He said that if the matter was not resolved, Malaysia’s credit ratings could decline further, impacting its economic prospects.
In its downgrade, Fitch said the revision was primarily driven by the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on Malaysia’s fiscal position and the ongoing domestic political situation.
fantastic strategy.
ReplyDeleteStrange, Yiddin always claim he has majority support, but in all the block votes the maximum he ever got was 110. Majority is 111, since 2 seats are vacant. 50% is not majority. It is hung parliament.
ReplyDeleteNow the test is for MCA 2 and MIC 1. Will they have the Lam Phar to topple the backdoor gomen. DAP's 42 cannot do it.
After Kedah demolished Hindu temples MIC can play rough. MCA will probably whine and pussyfoot under the table.
Fitch didn't say it but if the Twit of A Twat FM had brought back the fairest and most efficient taxation system (GST lah apa lagi) to help balance the budget our credit rating would be maintained at AAA-. To pay for the increase in corruption lah. Musa Aman dan Ku Nan sudah lepas...
ReplyDeleteFitch knew all along that GST was introduced by Jibby only to plug the hole of corruption.
Even when the provisional accountant and book-keeper scrapped GST and brought back SST Fitch did not lower our credit rating, because there were corresponding actions to stop corruption. Big thanks to Guanee.
Actually PH policies contributed to the downgrade. Rating agencies already put Malaysia on negative outlook (precursor to downgrade) after LGE stopped GST and took monies from Petronas. LGE populist policy which was foolish. Malaysia will have to reintroduce GST at some point.
ReplyDeleteUnder Najib's BN budget deficits fell and debt to GDP also fell. They rose sharply under PH. Clearly a sign of fiscal mismanagement under PH.
Malaysian politics lack maturity and real nationalism. It's always been a war of negativism. Pakatan promoted anti-GST for nothing other than to be different from Najib even though GST is an effective taxation system for the nation. Once it won GE14, Pakatan was eff-ed by its own policy of being anti-GST. The rest has been its eff-up financial policies.
DeleteHow to divert from that cesspool of religion&politic when a sizable of the voters r zombies, ketuanan freaks & blurred-sotongs?
DeleteThe sopo negativism ain't bcoz of maturity & real nationalism.
One question - if GST is an effective taxation system for the nation then WHY r there do many incidental upwardly rate adjustments? Those adjustments r stifling the fiscal mechanism when many countries r using GST to increase their revenue income, especially during economic downturns.
This is known as killing the goose that lays the golden egg!
You have conveniently forgotten the Billions of Government funds that have had to diverted to pay Government Guaranteed 1MDB debts.
DeleteYes, the Ratings agencies praised Najib even as he was robbing Malaysia blind.
Rob, GST was used to fund corruption and gomen incompetence. Remember, when Jibby was FM, 18 billion GST refund was not returned for years, it was put into the gomen Consolidated Revenue account and used nilly willy. Tengku Zafrul is still returning GST refunds from Jibby's time in 2020, after Guanee killed GST in 2018.
DeleteGST is indeed an effective taxation system.....for the corrupt and incompetent gomen.
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GST refunds will be expedited, payments starting June 22, says Tengku Zafrul
Monday, 15 Jun 2020
KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — The Finance Ministry through the Royal Malaysian Customs Department is committed to ensuring that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund to taxpayers will be expedited, and payment to be made beginning June 22.
Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the payment process would be completed by December this year.
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Rob, please baca and faham, the Petronas special dividend sought by Guanee was to pay off the GST refunds that Jibby with-held since 2015 to fund corruption and his gomen incompetence.
DeleteSo you see, GST is indeed a very efficient and powerful tax system, and every corrupt and/or incompetent politician loves it.
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All RM30b from Petronas will be used for tax refunds
Published 12 Mar 2019
PARLIAMENT | The Dewan Rakyat was today told that the federal government will honour its commitment to disburse around RM37 billion in backlogged tax refunds this year.
So far, 54,603 registrants have received the refunds amounting to RM3.994 billion, said Deputy Finance Minister Amiruddin Hamzah (Harapan-Kubang Pasu).
This was in response to a question by Noraini Ahmad (BN-Parit Sulong) who sought an update on the refund process.
Putrajaya is financing the refunds through a RM30 billion special dividend payout by Petronas.
Noraini also sought an explanation on how Putrajaya would spend the RM10 billion "balance," claiming the backlogged GST refunds amounted to RM19.47 billion.
To this, Amiruddin said the total refunds owed amounted to RM37 billion and therefore Noraini's suggestion that there would be a RM10 billion balance was invalid.
In August last year, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had revealed that Putrajaya owed RM19.397 billion in outstanding GST refunds since 2015.
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