The Kelana Jaya MP said he was surprised that the minister of whom he had a good impression could have released such a statement.
He added that Mustapa’s comments on the alternative budget were “without basis nor evidence”.
“Mustapa Mohamed is a capable albeit bland technocrat. We worked well together in the TPPA caucus, agreeing to disagree on many issues but always respectful in our dealings.
“On first glance, it is as if the statement was written by someone else and his name was added to it,” Wong Chen said in a statement today.
The PKR commerce and investment bureau chief also questioned the need for the international trade and industry minister to vilify the alternative budget, instead of the finance minister.
On the criticism by Mustapa, Wong Chen said it was also puzzling that despite all the policies, projections and narratives, the only bone of contention for the minister was the goods and services tax (GST) computation.
“With regard to our plans to eliminate the GST, Mustapa said the following: ‘… instead of sharing with us their plans to compensate this drop in revenue, they are only relying on the questionable assumption that a tax cut will result in higher consumption and tax collection.’
“If Mustapa cannot be bothered to read the entire budget, he should at least read the section, ‘Can we afford to eliminate GST?’ on pages 14 to 15 of our budget, where we detailed our plans on how to compensate the drop in GST revenue,” Wong Chen said.
He chided Mustapa for ignoring the section and instead claiming publicly “that we had no such plans”.
Wong Chen also took aim at the minister for not acknowledging the PH alternative budget proposal to offset 80% of the GST shortfall by eliminating RM20 billion from wastage and corruption.
“Why did Mustapa choose to completely ignore our anti-corruption plans? Could it be that he believes that there is no wastage and corruption in his government?
“Or could it be that he has totally given up all hope of ever seeing a corruption-free Malaysia?”