Budget 2023: Sivakumar to discuss allocation details for non-Muslim houses of worship with Finance Ministry

BATU GAJAH: Human Resources Minister V. Sivakumar will meet the Finance Ministry to discuss the details of the allocation for the non-Muslim houses of worship contained in Budget 2023.

Sivakumar (pic), who is also the sole Hindu minister in the Cabinet, said this was because it was the first time Hindu temples (as part of non-Muslim houses of worship) have received allocations from the government in a national budget.

"Yesterday, Prime Minister (Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim) announced an allocation of RM50mil for the maintenance and repairs of non-Muslims houses of worship.

"This includes, houses of worship for Hindus, Chinese and Christians. The move will benefit all the communities,” he said after officiating the MYFuture Jobs Career Carnival and Housewives’ Social Security Scheme 2023 at the Silverlakes Village Outlet here on Saturday (Feb 25).

Sivakumar also shared that RM100mil has been allocated to the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit (Mitra) while another RM30mil was provided through the Usaha Niaga Group Economic Fund (Tekun) for the Indian Micro-Entrepreneur Financing Scheme.

Anwar, who is also Finance Minister, announced RM50mil for the maintenance and overhaul of non-Muslim houses of worship throughout the country and RM900mil for the maintenance of facilities of all types of schools, including Tamil type national schools when he presented the Budget 2023 in Parliament on Friday (Feb 24).- Bernama