By Nur Ashikin Louis
KUCHING, Feb 24: The Malaysian Auditor General’s Report for the year 2020 and 2021 revealed that the government lost almost RM3 billion due to losses in public funds, irregular payments and wastages, says Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“For example, for the issue of under collection of vehicles import duty, the government has lost RM72 million just because of the weak import duty collection process.
“In addition, there is also leakage in the implementation of diesel subsidies with an estimate of almost RM10 billion worth of diesel subsidies being misappropriated last year,” he said when tabling the National Budget 2023 in Parliament today.
He further mentioned that Malaysia’s ranking in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2022 has dropped to 61st place compared to 29th place in 1998, with the reason for the decline was the failure to curb political corruption.
Touching on inflation, Anwar said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected world economic growth in 2023 to moderate at 2.9 per cent compared to 3.4 per cent last year. Meanwhile, the trade sector at the world level is also projected to slow at a rate of 2.4 per cent compared to 5.4 per cent in 2022.
“Inflation in 2022 is at a rate of 3.3 per cent with a high food inflation rate of 5.8 per cent. The inflation rate this year is expected to be the same as in 2022. However, it will be higher if the uncertainty of the global supply chain is not addressed.
“Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in 2022 is recorded at 3.6 per cent compared to 3.3 per cent during the pre-pandemic period of 2019. Youth unemployment for those aged 25 and below is still above 10 per cent. The average income of youth is also low, around RM1,700 in 2021,” he explained.
He also stressed that the country’s investment has yet to reach pre-pandemic performance whereby it achieved investment of RM297.5 billion in 2022 which is 9.4 per cent lower than RM328.5 billion in 2019.
“Malaysia’s position in the World Competitiveness List by the Institute of Management Development (IMD) has also fallen to 32, of which the country has ever occupied the 12th place when investors believed in its economic capacity and the efficiency of the public delivery machinery,” he added. — DayakDaily
