Pakatan to announce alternative Budget tomorrow

By Syed Mu’az Syed Putra
KEPALA BATAS, Oct 2 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will unveil its alternative Budget for next year tomorrow, five days before the prime minister tables Budget 2012 in Parliament, opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has said.

He said the move would allow the public to compare the economic policies of the opposition pact and the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, which is under pressure to tackle rising cost of living.
“The committee comprising economic experts from PAS, DAP and PKR has put together our own Budget... in great detail,” he said after attending the PAS 60th Anniversary Congress here.
PR’s Budget 2012 is expected to include income and expenditure projections, allocations for government ministries and will highlight policy differences between PR and BN.
Anwar (picture), who is also PKR de facto leader, said the Budget would also focus on the opposition’s reform agenda and provide an alternative to BN’s own Budget, which will be tabled this Friday.
The former finance minister added that he was confident the alternative Budget would better explain the opposition’s philosophy and development concept to Malaysians.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said last month that Budget 2012 would focus on tackling the surge in living costs and strengthen the local economy.
The Malaysian Insider understands that Najib is also mulling a hefty bonus or pay increase for all 1.3 million civil servants to counter rising inflation and shore up support among government staff ahead of the next general election.
The move is similar to what former prime minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi did in 2007, a year before calling snap polls.