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Abdullah Expected To Unveil Expansionary Budget
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 6 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will unveil Friday what is widely expected to be an expansionary Budget for next year along with goodies for all and continuing measures to help the poor and low income earners.
The government is expected to allocate more money for the 2008 Budget compared with RM159.4 billion for 2007, with increased sums for both operating and development expenditure.
Analysts said that improved tax collection and higher revenue as a result of skyrocketing oil prices would put the government in good stead to propose an expansionary Budget.
There is no denying that the talk of the town is that it would be an election Budget, which is why there are expectations that Budget proposals would be introduced aimed at raising the people's disposable income.
The move would partly help mitigate rising costs, while government employees would again be looking forward to bonuses ahead of the year-end festivities and increased expenses in January as the new school term starts.
This will be the fourth Budget to be tabled by Abdullah since becoming Prime Minister and taking over the Finance Minister's portfolio in October 2003.
With the event to be carried live by most radio and TV channels tomorrow, all eyes will be on Abdullah from 4pm onwards as to what he has in store for the country when he tables the Budget.
Whatever goodies the Prime Minister has in his bag, he is expected to impress upon the rakyat the importance of moving the economy up the value chain, raising national competitiveness and enhancing human resource development.
Like last year, measures and policies would be introduced to attract increased investments, intensify research and development, promote product branding, boost services as well as Islamic finance and the halal industry.
It would have been a busy time for Ministry of Finance officials over the past several weeks as they put together Malaysia's financial blueprint for next year, taking into account the diverse demands by various groups.
Analysts caution that definitive steps need to be introduced to further boost exports as exports in the first six months of 2007 rose by only 1.3 percent to RM282.9 billion from Jan-June 2006 compared with a 10.6 percent increase before.
Inter-Pacific's head of research, Anthony Dass, said concerns remain about the U.S. economy, especially with the sub-prime mortgage issue and its possible fallout and spillover effect.
To this end, the Budget is expected to continue announcing incentives to maintain the competitiveness of the country.
A growth of 6.0 percent for the whole of this year is on track if first and second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures of 5.5 percent and 5.7 percent respectively are anything to go by.
For sure, the Budget would not be the only bag of goodies announced by the government as measures were earlier introduced to add vigour to the property sector and to speed up procedures for company registrations to boost business activities.
-- BERNAMA |
