Falling oil prices will not affect 2015 devt expenditure – Treasury

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CYBERJAYA: The 2015 development expenditure will not be reduced although falling world’s oil prices might affect the country’s revenue, Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Siregar Abdullah said.

He said on the contrary, all projects presented in the Budget 2015 would be carried out as planned.

“For now, we are using the allocation provided in the 2015 Budget. There were no cuts,” he told reporters after presenting the ‘MaGIC Social Entrepreneurship Amplify Awards’ at the Malaysian Global Innovation & Creativity Centre (MaGIC) here yesterday.

Mohd Irwan said despite falling oil prices, the fuel subsidy savings and the impending Goods and Services Tax (GST) from April 1 next year would help raise the country’s income.

“From there (GST), we have some cushion in terms of extra revenue coming in while from fuel subsidy savings, which we can pump into the development expenditure.

“We are already discussing with the central bank, the Economic Planning Unit, the Finance Ministry and various government entities on how to sustain growth.

“We are also looking at how to boost export, domestic investment and domestic consumption and we are confident of maintaining the growth of five to six per cent next year,” he said.

On the awards, Mohd Irwan, who is also MaGIC chairman, said the first five recipients would receive grants totalling RM480,000 to provide health and education facilities for the poor and needy.

“The government has allocated RM20 million for the MaGIC Social Entrepreneurship and hopes more entrepreneurs would apply for the allocation to help the society,” he added. — Bernama