KUALA LUMPUR: The Dewan Rakyat has passed the Consolidated Fund (Expenditure on Account) bill 2022 or the '2023 Mini Budget' amounting to RM107,718,676,650.
Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Johari Abdul announced this after the bill received majority support in the House today.
The bill was tabled by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who is also Finance Minister.
The mini budget was tabled to facilitate provisions for expenditure in 2023 such as salaries of civil servants, given that the 2023 Budget has yet to be approved.
The mini budget will take effect from Jan 1, 2023, until the date the 2023 Supply Bill (2023 Budget) becomes law and comes into operation.
Anwar said the full 2023 Budget will be tabled in February next year.
The bill seeks to authorise the expenditure of an amount not exceeding the sum of RM107,718,676,650 to be issued from the consolidated fund for the purpose.
The Treasury General Services would receive the highest allocation under the mini budget with RM28.118 billion.
This is followed by Education Ministry with RM24.97 billion, Health Ministry (RM17 billion), Home Affairs Ministry (RM6.9 billion), Higher Education (RM5.85 billion) and Defence Ministry (RM5.7 billion).
Anwar said that the tabling of the mini budget was done with the aim of obtaining Parliament's temporary permission so that the government can spend part of the budgeted expenditure for several months until the 2023 Supply Bill is re-presented and approved later.
The estimated expenditure under the relevant bill include salary payments to civil servants, utilities, scholarships, welfare assistance, education and health services as well as ongoing development projects that need to be continued, especially repair and maintenance work.
"We have to take into account the limitations of this temporary expenditure estimate which is limited to the government's existing policies and commitments for the first six months of 2023 first.
"What is good will be continued, especially existing initiatives that provide benefits to the people. Other expenses will be reviewed in preparation for the re-presentation of the 2023 Budget," he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
On addressing the cost of living, Anwar gave his assurance that the government would apply the best method to ease the people's struggles so that they would not be overly burdened by the increase in the price of goods.
He said the government had also agreed not to increase electricity tariffs for all domestic consumers as well as micro, small and medium entrepreneurs (MSME)
Following that, Anwar said the government would bear a subsidy of RM10 billion in the first six months of 2023, in line with Putrajaya's approach to protecting the people and MSME businesses.