New govt must table budget again if GE called soon - Zafrul

New govt must table budget again if GE called soon - Zafrul


In the event a general election is called before the recently tabled Budget 2023 can be passed in Parliament, the new government has to retable a fresh budget, said Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

The finance minister said this today after reading his budget speech in Parliament, adding that such a situation happened in 1999 when then-prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad dissolved Parliament.

However, he said, this does not defeat the purpose of his ministry’s preparation for Budget 2023.

"This happened before. You can refer to what happened in 1999 when the dissolution of Parliament took place after the budget was presented. The budget was presented again. So, that is what will happen if there is a dissolution.

"But again, that question should be posted to the prime minister," he said at a press conference in Parliament today.

He said the tabling of a new budget will not be an exercise in redundancy for the Finance Ministry.

This is because they have held over 200 engagement sessions as well as gone through 250 memorandums and 120,000 proposals from the general public to produce Budget 2023, said the banker-turned-politician.

"The budget focuses on the future direction of the country, economic survey, and where are we going to be in terms of our gross domestic product (GDP), our targeted deficit. We also talk about plans for next year," he said.

[More to follow]