KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin claims that the government presented a flawed Budget 2024 with errors that were only corrected after discrepancies were pointed out. The Opposition Leader alleged that the correction issued by the government amounted to about RM4bil, approximately 1% of the whole Budget 2024. Hamzah showed a letter from the Office of the Deputy Finance Minister 1, Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan, which stated that there were corrections to page 231 on the items of indirect tax comprising excise duties and service tax. The letter also apologized for the errors in the Budget 2024 details.
In the Budget 2024 book released on Oct 13, which was read out by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, it was stated that the total federal government revenue was RM308,084,005,000. However, the correction on page 231 stated that there was a correction on the figures of indirect tax (RM4,698,500,000) comprising excise duties (RM1,148,500,000) and service tax (RM3,450,000,000), resulting in a net revenue gain of RM4,559,005,000. This then totalled the federal government revenue to RM312,159,005,000.
At a media conference, Hamzah stated that he is not calling for the invalidation of the Budget 2024 as it has already been passed by the Parliament. He pointed out the lack of preparedness of the government before the presentation of the Budget 2024, stating that opposition MPs were more competent in studying the budget than ruling MPs. Hamzah also questioned Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, for making “afterthought remedies” upon being questioned by the Opposition.
The media conference at the Bersatu party headquarters was attended by Opposition Chief Whip Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan and other Opposition MPs. Hamzah emphasized the importance of engaging all sectors before preparing the Budget and questioned why the Finance Minister did not make the corrections during the presentation of the Budget on Oct 13. He criticized the government for issuing the letter of corrections as an afterthought and not engaging the relevant industries.
Hamzah also expressed dissatisfaction with Anwar’s reply to his question in Parliament regarding the increase of Sales and Service Tax (SST) for the logistics industry. He stated that any increase in SST has a big impact on the industry chain. On Oct 13, Anwar announced that the government plans to increase the service tax rate to 8% instead of 6% and expand the scope of taxable services to include logistic services, brokerage, underwriting, and karaoke.
