Speaking at an online forum titled “Anthony Jawab Jujur”, Loke said it would be too short a period for Parliament to approve the budget.

“The process of approving the annual budget would usually take between six to seven weeks,” he pointed out, saying it would need to undergo the requisite debates and voting in Parliament.

He was commenting on speculation that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob would call for a dissolution of Parliament on Oct 10, a mere three days after the tabling of the annual budget.

Loke said if Parliament was to be dissolved just a few days after the tabling of the budget, then the budget would effectively not be approved and thus could not be implemented in time for 2023.

He said that if the next general election (GE15) was called in mid-November, then it would take weeks before a new government and Cabinet could be formed.

“This means the (whole) process will need to restart as the new finance minister would likely table a new budget,” he said.

He added that if the budget was not approved by December, then the government would not be able to pay the salaries of civil servants come the new year.

On Saturday, at the launch of the Barisan Nasional Youth machinery, Ismail had urged Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to hold discussions quickly about the date for GE15.

Ismail, who is an Umno vice-president, said he needed a bit more time to decide on the date together with Zahid, Bernama reported.

Budget 2023 is to be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat on Oct 7, three weeks ahead of the originally scheduled date of Oct 28.