Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh – Photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING (Oct 14): The State government should have held state legislative assembly (DUN) sitting to table and approve the 2022 State Budget Bill, said Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) president Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh.
Wong was commenting on the State Budget which was announced by Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg at a meeting of assemblymen chaired by him and DUN Speaker Datuk Amar Mohd Asfia Awang Nasar at Borneo Convention Center Kuching last Tuesday.
“I would like to commend YAB Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari for presenting a bold State Budget 2022 entitled ‘United in building a resilient, inclusive and progressive society’ but such an important document as the State Budget 2022 should not have been conducted so casually and perfunctorily outside DUN.
“Even though under the Emergency Order, the Chief Minister may have the power to approve the allocation from the Consolidated Fund for expenditure for one year, a more fitting procedure and doing more justice to an important legislative piece of law like the Supply Bill (2021) 2022 should have been convened at the DUN,” said Wong who is Bawang Assan assemblyman.
Wong noted that the RM285.47 million allocated in the 2022 Budget themed ‘United in building a resilient, for the Sarawakku Sayang Special Assistance 8.0 (BKSS) next year is far less than expected by the people ” he said.
“We would like to know the actual outcome and results of the earlier Sarawakku Sayang Special Aid Packages (BKSS) under BKSS 1.0, BKSS2.0, BKSS 3.0 and BKSS 4.0 totalling RM1.741 billion tabled for 2021 Budget. To what extent had this allocation cushioned and mitigated the impact brought about by the pandemic?” Wong asked.
He added that according to the Chief Minister, the BKSS 1.0 to 7.0 from 2020 to this year totalled RM5.3 billion involving 30 measures that have been implemented to protect people’s lives and revive the economy amidst the ravaging impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This is indeed quite a commitment and the government must now make an effort to analyse and assess whether the resources so committed are effective and how much and to what extent the government has been able to help the people and our economy,” said Wong.
The government must further assess whether we have helped to stabilise our economy, save businesses, to save jobs and to protect livelihood.
“I would like to quote what the Chief Minister said in his Budget speech 2021: ‘… the Sarawak government will be reviewing the BKSS assistance packages, particularly on measures meant for small businesses.’ We would like to know the outcome of that review.”
In Budget 2022 the Chief Minister dwelled at length on Strategic Thrusts and Initiatives 2022. Such strategic thrusts and initiatives are normal practices and are for normal development programmes and purposes, said Wong.
“In time of crisis as we are facing now, government interventions are the cornerstone of Covid-19 responses as the people will look towards the government that can organise and mobilise to save lives and livelihood and deal with immediate concerns, helping the people to stay employed and businesses to continue surviving and stay viable.”
The state government should really concentrate on providing assistance covering people of various backgrounds from individuals to businesses, he stressed.
“We just cannot run our economy as usual. In other words, we just cannot take the business of running our economy or BAU (Businesses As Usual) attitude or else there will be not much businesses left.”
“Towards this end, the government should mount a decisive and direct response to mitigate our economy so that they may later bounce back and recover.
“The state government at this juncture should focus on helping the Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) which form the backbone of our economy. They should be assisted by ways of direct financial support packages or incentives to help them to tide over the difficult recovery period. We ought to prioritise our financial resources to make sure that they are directed to the right places to enable our people and economy to rebound back faster and stronger.”
On revenue estimates of 2021, in the Non-Tax Revenue, there is quite a decline in interest income, said Wong referring to the interest income in 2017 at RM1.11 billion and followed by that in 2018 (RM1.008 billion), 2019 (RM1.006 billion), 2020 (RM1.058 billion), 2021 (RM822 million) and 2022 (RM721 million).
The state government ought to come out with an explanation why there is such a decline in the interest income in the two years of 2021 and 2022, he said.
“Interest income is derived from our Reserve Fund deposited with the Commercial Banks and Development Bank of Sarawak (DBoS) to earn interest annually, he explained.
The decrease in the state interest income for year 2021 and 2022 can only be attributed to two factors – the low interest rates offered by the banks or reduction in the state reserve fund, he said.
“As stated by the Chief Minister in his winding-up speech on 18 July 2018: “The financial reserves of Sarawak are being accumulated for the purpose of safeguarding Sarawak.” and “… we will not rush into spending our reserve without proper justification as we want to ensure that our reserves are spent for the benefit of Sarawak and future generations to come”. We must therefore guard our reserves jealously because they are our rainy-day fund and they are there to make sure that we can remain financially autonomous.
“The state government should enlighten us on the big reduction of our interest income for years 2021 and 2022 as they appear in the state Budgets. We are of the opinion that money transferred to DBoS from our Reserve Fund can no longer be treated as part of our Reserve Fund.”
Money deposited with DBoS is normally expended as loans given to projects, said Wong.
With commercial banks, the state can recall its deposits placed with them upon short notice whereas it is in no position to do the same with DBoS, he explained.
The Chief Minister often talks of alternative funding via DBoS but there is no such thing as alternative funding via DBoS when the party raising funds is an arm of the Sarawak government, he said.
DBoS raising funds is no different to the Sarawak government raising funds. So we must not delude ourselves that DBoS is a separate entity from the Sarawak government.
Any fund expended by DBoS is money from the state government.
Even if it is a syndicated loans with other commercial banks, the portion taken up by DBoS is the government fund.
“It is hoped that the state government would not use this basis of our healthy reserves to stretch so far as to deplete our reserves, he said.
The Chief Minister correctly pointed out that the Federal government’s RM4.47 billion allocation for Sarawak under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) is meagre.
“Indeed, the state of Sarawak has not been given due consideration for a fair share of Federal budget despite its enormous contribution to the national economy and Federal coffer.“
The state government should now be more assertive by using its King Makers role to demand that the state of Sarawak be given 30 per cent of the Federal allocation to enable the level of development of the Sarawak state to be at par with that of Peninsular Malaysia, said Wong.
The state government ought to strongly urge the Federal Government to honour and fulfill all obligations and responsibilities as stipulated under the Federal Constitution and Malaysia Agreements 1963 (MA63), he stressed.