KUALA LUMPUR: The decision to rationalise subsidies reflects the government’s approach to always manage the people’s money responsibly, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop said yesterday.
“Subsidy rationalisation does not mean the government is facing budget constraints.
“It is about managing people’s funds more efficiently,” he told reporters after opening the Public Private Partnership Workshop Series 2 here yesterday.
“The people give the government the mandate to manage their money and we have to constantly think of the best way to manage the funds,” he said.
Asked whether now was a right time to cut subsidies, Nor Mohamed said that as a responsive government, it would make decisions after taking into account all the impact.
“There are so many demand on the government budget as everybody wants the funds. The government uses the funds for the good of people.
The government has to make decisions and think of what to do and not.
It is not as easy as to cut or not to cut because we have other demand of the government priorities,” he said, adding that the government’s financial resources were limited and therefore it had to be utilised efficiently.
He said the government also would never borrow unnecessarily and most rating agencies saw Malaysia as a responsible government.
Subsidies must be cut gradually in order to bring the budget deficit under control, he said, adding that the government planned to reduce the deficit from 5.6 per cent last year to 5.4 per cent this year.
In tackling the deficit issue, he said, the government took a practical step by allowing the deficit to increase during economic slowdown and lower it when the economy recovers.
Some countries, however, took the ideological approach and considered deficit as bad and something evil while surplus was something good and heavenly. — Bernama