Budget BN & PR.. Both Are GE13 Budget After All (Part 1)
PR - Buatlah bujet betul-betul.....bukan mudah untuk memberikan KUASA kepada yang lain jika "KAMU" gagal untuk meyakinkan RAAYAT.
I
had a tough few days where I wasn’t in good health condition, and have
to take some rest. Alhamdulillah, I have recuperated well, and among the
very first thing is to have a good look on both budgets presented by BN
and PR.
I believe, by now, many have done their
own analysis and given their thoughts. As GE getting nearer and nearer,
both BN and PR have ridiculed what other sides’ budget have presented.
This is expected, as both sides are too much committed to show how good
the coalition they supported, and how bad the side is.
After going through both budgets, I have
to say that, to be fair, both are GE budgets, be it BN or PR. Even
though BN has been improving such budgets presented in recent years, the
sentiments of GE13 cannot be ignored. PR’s? It is a clear GE budget.
Why?
Let me bring through some of the key points from what can be read PR’s budget doc, obtained from Rafizi Ramli, a PKR strategist, who have blocked my twitter after series of questions on Turun Harga Kereta campaign.
First, in the presentation, the key of PR
presentation is to have extra ringgit in Malaysians pocket. Catchy
highlight, but the basis of such highlight is made on poor
generalization. Why? Let’s take a look what is stated, shall we:
| The full implementation of the proposals contained in Belanjawan Pakatan Rakyat 2013 and other proposals announced in Buku Jingga and other documents shall increase the monthly disposable income of a typical Malaysian household* as follows: Ringgit Malaysia (RM) | |
| Saving from lower car prices | 70 |
| Saving from abolishment of toll (total spread out over one year) | 50 |
| Waiver of PTPTN loan for qualified borrower | 200 |
| Special Teaching Allowance as promised in Buku Jingga | 500 |
| Government’s contribution to Caruman Wanita Nasional for wife | 50 |
| Saving from lower food and goods prices due to lower fuel and transportation charges, estimated at 5% | 60 |
| TOTAL INCREASE IN MONTHLY DISPOSABLE INCOME | 930 |
A total of RM930 can only be obtained IF you are:-
- A teacher (as I don’t think special teaching allowance is entitled to ALL Malaysians)
- PTPTN qualified borrower (other borrowers can dream on)
- A woman (as I don’t think Caruman Wanita Nasional workable for men)
So, if you are not in the in the above 3 categories, you are not entitled to a savings worth of RM750. Taking
the calculation as good and workable budget made, you are able to save
only RM180 only IF you are living in Klang Valley and goes back four
times a year to the kampung in Alor Setar. I’m not sure if
majority Malaysians travels 4 times a year to Alor Setar. I thought each
long holiday, traffic to East Coast Peninsular Malaysia is pretty much
heavy.. even heavier than those going up North.
The PR budget made of 3 main thrusts.
- THRUST 1: INCREASING DISPOSABLE INCOME, ALLEVIATING ECONOMIC HARDSHIP
- THRUST 2: BUILDING ENTERPRENEURIAL CLASS, PROMOTING CONSTRUCTIVE COMPETITION
- THRUST 3: A JUST SOCIETY WITH DIGNITY AND PRIDE
3 interesting thrust. Let’s go deep into each of it.
Thrust 1
The establishment of National Housing
Board with expanded responsibilities and scope with 100,000 affordable
homes within the price range of RM130,000 to RM300,000 to be built
(50,000 of such homes will be built in the inner cities of Klang Valley)
do look very much catch the interest of young Malaysians. Even though
PR acknowledged that Many are priced out of the market particularly in
the major cities of Malaysia, i.e., Kuala Lumpur-Klang Valley, Pulau
Pinang, Johor Bahru, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, half of that 100,000
affordable houses will be in Klang Valley. Therefore, I wonder
how many of the other 50,000 houses to be build in Penang, Johor Bahru,
Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. Will it be 12,500 in each 4 major cities
mentioned?
It is also mentioned that PR will do
stronger intervention than tightening credit regulations as currently
adopted by Barisan Nasional. How will the real estate developers react
to this? How will the suppliers to housing construction react to this? And
I verily believe that this strong intervention is not on the intended
100,000 affordable house to be built by National Housing Board.
Implications of strong intervention are
different from tightening credit regulations. Intervention is a force
made on the market, regardless of how the market is performing. Yes, it
may bring good effects rather than bad.. and it depends on how PR intend
to intervene if they are the government.
They also aim to raise Income through
Structural Changes in Policies, Restructuring the Labour Market. They
propose to reduce the cost of living and the share of earnings captured
by monopolistic and well connected corporations; and, allowing wages to
rise through a combination of labour market reforms (including the
implementation of the RM1,100 universal minimum wage).
However, if one read properly, PR mentioned that “the
increase in household income is to be earned rather than given. Rising
incomes will also lead to increased tax revenue in later years”. If one misread it, it will look like It means that for you to increase your household income, you still HAVE TO EARN it, not GIVEN and PR Government is looking forward to tax you and leads to increase in tax revenue.
PR also will address this skills mismatch
by promoting re-training in relevant vocational institutions for
existing graduates. It means, after long years of study and graduated,
these grads will under-go another set of training to meet the market
demands. This is an interesting idea, but the question remains, will the
cost be absorbed by government OR the business entity who are
interested to employ these re-trained grads?
I am also interested to know how it will be to paddy market price once PR abolish the BERNAS set price.
On the abolishment of PTPTN loan, nothing
new in the pledge, except for it is said that “Pakatan Rakyat is
confident that it can wipe out the loans for a substantial number of
borrowers who meet a certain set of criteria (a combination of economic
means testing based on current income, academic results and prior track
records) (page 34)”. So, does it means that, as practiced by
current PTPTN, those who met a set of criteria, their PTPTN loan will be
waived? So.. what is the difference? What is the tolerable academic
results?
اموکنملايو - جنجي تق سروڤا بيکين
