BR1M is an economic measure, not bribe, says Najib

He said BR1M was a social safety net recommended by the National Fiscal Committee comprising officials from the Economic Planning Unit (EPU), Bank Negara and the Ministry of Finance who were mostly economic experts, not politicians.

"Mind you, BR1M is given to everyone regardless of his or her political inclination. BR1M is given regardless of when the elections are held. My conscience is clear. BR1M is an economic measure, not bribery," he said this in his blog 'NajibRazak.com' in response to allegations that BR1M "was a bribe.

He said some politicians had pointed out that in spite of BR1M, the people were "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," he added.

Najib explained that such a social security net was being implemented in many other countries with some calling it "unemployment benefit", which targets the unemployed.

However, BR1M targets the low income, and both in essence, are a form of social security allowance as they target vulnerable groups, he said.

"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," Najib said.

Hence, the prime minister stressed that BR1M must be seen in the context of a targeted subsidy, as it was the belief of the Fiscal committee that it would reduce leakages and increase the efficiency of the country's subsidy mechanism.

BR1M also compensates the needy for any additional expenditure that they might incur as a result of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

He said some quarters claimed that the GST was a regressive tax as everyone including the poor are subjected to it but with BR1M, the GST was 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, he added.

"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," said Najib.

Najib said the Education Ministry received the biggest amount of allocation from the budget.

On top of that, the government has also created entities like TERAJU, Tekun, Genovasi, Superb, MAGiC and many other government training programmes under various ministries.

In his blog, the Prime Minister also responded to claims that he was ignoring the EPU by setting up a new agency (Performance Management & Delivery Unit) to plan the development of the country.

"I formed Pemandu as a steering body that oversees the transformation programme that covers not only economic aspects under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), but non-economic aspects under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP), which naturally does not fall under the purview of the Economic Planning Unit, which is an economic body," he said.

Contrary to what some have pointed out, Najib said he has placed enormous importance on the EPU which was key to ensuring the success of the ETP.