INTERACTIVE: Here are the ministries which often gets the highest and lowest allocations in the Budget.

Shoppers picking up groceries at a supermarket. — AZLINA ABDULLAH/The Star

PETALING JAYA: Education, Finance and Health are the top three ministries when it comes to budget allocations.

An analysis of Budgets tabled between 2016 and 2026 shows these three ministries consistently in the top three, receiving about half of all ministerial allocations each year.

In Budget 2026, for instance, the three ministries received a total of RM159.7bil or 52% of the RM306.9bil allocated to the country’s 28 ministries.

 

 

From 2016 to 2026, the top spot in terms of allocations often changed hands between the Education and Finance ministries.

The Education Ministry held the top spot from 2016 to 2018, reclaiming it in 2020 and 2021, and returned to the top spot in 2025 and 2026.

The Finance Ministry topped the list in 2019 and agains from 2022 and 2024.

The Health Ministry remained in third place throughout all 11 years.

 

 

At the other end of the ranking, the bottom three positions switched among ministries more frequently.

Among those which often received the smallest share of allocations are the ministries for National Unity; Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development; and Plantation and Commodities.

For most of the 2016-2026 period, ministries in the bottom three received less than RM1bil each.