We know that Malaysia owes some money, but do we know the true depth of our financial debt?
Well, Tun M just revealed today (21 May 2018) that currently, our country is over RM1 TRILLION in debt, reported The Malay Mail. That’s 12 zeros, guys!
“We find that the country’s finances for example, was abused in a way that now we are facing trouble settling debts that have risen to a trillion ringgit.”
“We have never had to deal with this before. Before, we never faced debts higher than 300 billion ringgit, but now it has climbed to 1 trillion ringgit,” said Tun M when he spoke to the staff of the prime minister’s office for the first time.
BTW, kudos to a transparent government!
Tun M told them that are a lot of changes coming their way, but he is confident that it can be overcome with their help, according to NST.
Source: Bernama
“We are confident that we can overcome the challenges, but we need civil servants who are efficient and trustworthy to achieve these changes.”
“As administrators, one must put the rule of law above all else and those tasked to carry out their duties must help to clean things up so that Malaysia can be on the road to recovery. All of us must work together to achieve this,” he explained.
Tun M also added that the possible changes are being thoroughly studied, but it was still too early to reveal the changes.
Nevertheless, he requested the civil servants’ “undivided support” to help Malaysia get back on the “right track of economic recovery”.
“It won’t take too long for the country to recover and be respected once again, if all of us work together,” he encouraged.
Source: The Sun Daily
Speaking of changes, within a week of taking over office, Tun M’s administration had already made some major changes in the country, amongst them are;
- Setting the GST rate to zero-rated starting 1 June 2018 [before reinstating Sales and Services Tax (SST)].
- Setting a fixed fuel price (before re-introducing fuel subsidies as promised).
Following these changes, it’s quite evident that the current government is working towards lowering the rising living costs.
However, according to ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service, Tun M’s budgetary would increase “Malaysia’s fiscal deficit and are credit negative without any offsetting measures”. This means that the government’s expenditure will exceed the revenue collected.
On a side note, Najib’s administration had initially planned to collect RM43.8 billion through GST. That’s about 18 per cent of total revenue.
Source: The Star
Previously, during the election campaign, Najib also warned Malaysians that Tun M’s economic proposal could result in a one trillion ringgit debt, but Tun M revealed today (21 May 2018) that the outrageous amount was actually accumulated by the previous government.
Not only that, Najib also denied Pakatan Harapan’s claim that the previous federal government’s debt amounted to about “50.9 per cent of its GDP at June 2017, which was below the government’s limit of 55 per cent”.
Source: The Malay Mail
Shutting down that idea quickly, Tun M said that most of the figures pertaining to the country’s financial position may not be truthful.
With that said, the amount of debt announced by Tun M is definitely alarming. Hence, as Malaysians, we should cooperate with the current government to help them solve this problem so Malaysia can get back on its feet.
United we stand, divided we fall!
Also read: “This Country is Not Poor, You Are the Reason You Are Poor,” Minister Tells Malaysians
