Selangor MB says Budget 2014 'imbalanced'; no real reforms

Posted on 25 October 2013 - 09:39pm

Last updated on 26 October 2013 - 11:47am

PETALING JAYA (Oct 25, 2013): Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim today said the Budget 2014 does not contain real reforms to achieve spending efficiency and rationalization, nor to reduce wastages and leakages.

"Measures appear more skewed towards broadening and diversifying the revenue base," he said, citing the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and hikes in the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) rates.

"It is an imbalanced attempt to meet the self-imposed federal government debt ceiling below 55% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and deficit reduction to at least 3% of the GDP by 2015."

In a statement, he also noted that as a percentage of total expenditure, operating expenditure, where cost rationalisation and savings can be achieved the most, is instead set to increase to 82.4% from 80.2% this year.

However, he said the Services Sector Blueprint that the federal government plans to launch to invigorate the services sector is something Selangor should capitalise on.

"Among the services sub-sectors to be promoted that Selangor can take the lead are the logistics, aviation, tourism and bio-based industries," he said.

To tap into the tremendous opportunities provided by Visit Malaysia Year, Selangor, as the centre of entry points into Malaysia, will line up various programmes and activities for the anticipated 28 million tourists.