Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam:
PETALING JAYA: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s action to postpone the five pledges of Pakatan Harapan should be applauded as it seeks to maintain the fiscal deficit of 2.8%, says Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam.
The five pledges include petrol subsidies for cars under 1,300cc and motorcycles under 125cc, higher minimum wage, delayed student loan repayments, national expansion of Selangor’s Skim Pedulu Sihat, and Employees Provident Fund contributions for housewives.
The chairman of the Asli centre of public policy studies said. “The debt management will improve considerably with the postponement of the five pledges.
“The estimated RM1 trillion will now be made more manageable by international financial standards of World Bank and IMF criteria.”
Moreover, Ramon said Pakatan Harapan inclining towards the transparency on the country’s budget is highly credible as the public is fully informed in a timely manner without long days compared to the previous government.
“I hope they will continue to adopt higher standards of transparency and pragmatism on the serious debt management as well as the operating and development expenditures of the country.
“The public has also welcomed the transparency in the budget changes made by Guan Eng on the net overall budget impact to have a positive balance of RM300mil,” he added.
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