Sunday, May 17, 2015

PM @NajibRazak answers allegation that BR1M is a bribe #KekalNajib



BR1M is a social safety net recommended by the National Fiscal Committee, which comprises of officials from the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Bank Negara and the Ministry of Finance. They are mostly economics experts, not politicians. Such a social security net is being implemented in many other countries. Some call it “unemployment benefit”, which targets the unemployed. However, BR1M targets the low income. Both, in essence, are a form of social security allowance as they target vulnerable groups.



We aim to rationalise our current blanket subsidy to one that targets the needy. Everyone (including the rich and foreigners) benefit from blanket subsidies. By abolishing blanket subsidies, we generate savings that will then be channelled to those in the low-income group. And we will be able to give these deserving groups more than what they would have received as a result of the blanket subsidy scheme. Hence, BR1M must be seen in the context of a targeted subsidy, and it is the belief of the Fiscal committee that it will reduce leakages and increase the efficiency of our subsidy mechanism.

BR1M also compensates the needy for the any additional expenditure that they might incur as a result of GST. Some quarters claim that the GST is a regressive tax as everyone including the poor are subjected to it. However, with BR1M, GST is not regressive as the low-income groups are being compensated. In addition, a large portion of GST revenue will be spent on this vulnerable community.

Some politicians say that in spite of BR1M, the people are “not grateful.” This is exactly why they believe it is bribery and are not on the same page as the fiscal committee. We see it as an economic measure, but these politicians see it purely in the context of politics. Mind you, BR1M is given to everyone regardless of his or her political inclination. BR1M is given regardless of when elections are held. My conscience is clear. BR1M is an economic measure, not bribery and I have stated the reasons why.

People always say, “Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish, he lives for a life time”. But in the real world, we have to do both. Provide assistance to the needy and at the same time invest in education/skills upgrading/improving productivity. The Education Ministry receives the biggest amount allocation from our budget. On top of that, we have also created entities like TERAJU, Tekun, Genovasi, Superb, MAGiC and many other government training programmes under various ministries.

4 comments:

  1. wahh such an elegant response

    now you answer these questions:

    was the I love PM banners not a waste of funds

    was the chinese tsunami a declaration that the chinese support you

    was rompin and permatang pauh results a validation of your "great" performance

    was the chinese new year ad a clever move with the endearment ahjibgor

    you were so keen to beat the chinese drum and obediently wore the red samfu

    were you also PROUD of that zebra and hippo madagascar outfits

    were you really concerned about the rakyat's flood disaster when you instruct the photographer to just take 'paras ni'

    were you considerate when you instruct the guests not to take photos of the century's wedding as it was a 'private' function

    or were you afraid the rakyat gets to witness the wasteful lavish trappings

    even the Indonesian Tempo wrote about hippo's hidup mewah

    were you included in your brothers' press statement that protected your father's legacy

    so now we say to you "enough is enough" quick step down and grab that hippo too

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  2. Wahhh FIKIR... panasss nampak.


    So So many question more n more were shouting out... hahaha...
    I love Banner tu tak semahal bail out Konsortium Perkapalan Mirzan Mahathir atau pembaziran PR Selangor menyeleweng wang Yayasan Selangor tu macam mana?

    Banner I lOve PM.. sou vernier kpd yang hadir.. bg kepada orang ramai.. bukan bg pada anak beranak Najib... bodoh..

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  4. PASDAPX

    I love PM banner tu bukti najib syiok sendiri

    lepas tu dihadiahkan dgn tsunami cina

    hah sekarang rompin dan permatang pauh membayangkan tsunami Melayu pulak

    tsunami India akan datang

    ahjib masih SYIOK sendiri disokong oleh penjilat yg masih blur like sotong

    heh heh ... jangan marah ye!

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