Malaysian budget 2013 just came out today, so it is good to take a look at some of the key takeaways. As expected, it is ‘people friendly’ budget due to the upcoming elections so there are little mentions about subsidy reductions or GST. One of the points of concern is that federal debt is now at RM 502.4 bil, which is about 53.7% of GDP. This is somewhat alarming as the current government has allowed debt to grow unchecked. We can already see the difficulties faced by the European countries with high debt levels and wonder when it will be Malaysia’s turn if this goes on.
There are some usual budgets to promote business, trade, tourism, education, health etc. but they are usually not very effective without a detailed plan on how to implement them. Besides, given the high levels of corruption and middlemen commissions, the effective funds ......