2023 Mini Budget gives the people a little relief

SHAH ALAM - The 2023 Mini Budget approved in the Dewan Rakyat session on Tuesday gives the people in Malaysia a little relief.

A total of RM107 billion spent in the budget not only involved payments for civil servants' salaries, utilities and scholarships, but also included several other government initiatives to ensure the people's economic well-being.

Among the initiatives were the Bantuan Keluarga Malaysia (BKM) aid, Monsoon Season Aid (BMT), special additional Annual Salary Increment (KGT) and special financial aid for civil servants as well as providing 50,000 job opportunities.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim during the session said the government would continue the cash aid for the people implemented by the previous government by scheduling the first phase of the payments earlier from March 2023, to January, the same year.

The payment will benefit almost nine million recipients, with an allocation of RM2 billion, involving a rate of RM300 for each household and RM100 for the bachelors.

Anwar also announced RM100 in special additional KGT for grade 11 to 56 civil servants.

Meanwhile, a total of 1.3 million grade 56 civil servants and below would receive a special financial aid of RM700 while government pensioners will receive RM350.

For students, the early schooling aid of RM150 will be distributed from January.

The aid would be given to all students irrespective of the income level of their parents.

All the initiatives would give a little financial support for Malaysians for a while as they faced the issue of high cost of living.

The country is expected to face economic recession next year and the people were urged to prepare to face the coming challenges.

This meant that the government's journey in formulating efficient policies to deal with the crisis would take a while and required cooperation of all parties, especially the government, the opposition and academics.

Anwar's leadership would be tested from time to time in facing the challenges to bring economic stability to reduce the people's burden.