Shadow budget needs access to govt figures, says PAS MP

Shadow budget needs access to govt figures, says PAS MP

Ahmad Fadhli Shaari says PH does not need to teach the opposition how to put forth its ideas.

Ahmad Fadhli Shaari Sim Tze Tzin
Pasir Mas MP Ahmad Fadhli Shaari (left) asked Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin why Pakatan Harapan did not unveil alternative budgets when it was in the opposition bloc from March 2020 to November 2022.
PETALING JAYA:
A PAS MP has rejected a backbencher’s call for the opposition to come up with its own shadow budget, saying this required access to the government’s revenue figures and projections.

Pasir Mas MP Ahmad Fadhli Shaari said the opposition only knew about the figures prepared by Treasury officials when the 2025 budget was tabled by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim last Friday.

“So preparing an alternative budget is unnecessary. Pakatan Harapan does not need to teach us how to put forth our ideas,” the PAS information chief told FMT.

Fadhli said Perikatan Nasional’s focus was to debate the budget in the Dewan Rakyat rather than outside, and that their goal was to ensure the nation’s prosperity.

Yesterday, PKR’s Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin urged PN to come up with a shadow budget to play their role of check and balance on the government.

Sim said the opposition should reveal its version of the national budget, pointing out that PH had unveiled an alternative budget between 2010 and 2017 when it was in the opposition.

In its alternative 2018 budget, PH had promised to reinstate the fuel subsidy removed in December 2014 and to abolish all highway tolls.

Fadhli, however, asked Sim why PH did not unveil alternative budgets when it was in the opposition bloc from March 2020 to November 2022.

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