Budget 2015: Malaysians vote 'Cost of Living' as the most important issue

This was according to a poll conducted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak on his website, www.najibrazak.com which saw this category receiving the highest vote of 36,921 votes.

The poll conducted since August 2014 through the microsite www.najibrazak.com/bajet2015, was aimed at garnering public feedback on issues concerning the upcoming Budget 2015.

Apart from the 'Cost of Living', other categories listed in the top five are Employment (22,459 votes), Housing and Urban Life (20,478 votes), Education (13.762 votes) and Social Welfare: OKU & Other Disadvantaged Groups (13,738 votes).

For Public Safety & Corruption issue, it received 10,759 votes.

The issue of corruption came into the limelight recently following the prosecution of some high rank officials of the Customs Department of Malaysia by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

Meanwhile the Goods and Services Tax (GST) category, only received 10, 143 votes despite it being a topic of debate since it's announcement last year.

Other categories in the list were Healthcare, Environment & Agriculture, Transport & Infrastructure, Economic Development, Culture and Tourism, Taxation, Business and Finance, Public Service and Rural Development.

The Youth & Sports category garnered the lowest votes with only 1,918 votes.

Under the 'Cost of Living', the site received many feedbacks and suggestions for the government to take into consideration.

The suggestion from Mohd Arif, a member of the public received the most 'Likes' with a total of 149 likes.

In the comment, he had asked for the government to reduce the price of petrol, and that the fuel subsidy is only meant for those earning less than RM5,000 per month.

Other top comments included a suggestion from Abdul Rahman Kamis who urged the government to refine the granting of 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M), and a suggestion from Mohd Shafie who hoped that Budget 2015 would focus on the middle income group.

The cost of living is expected to be given serious attention by the government in the 2015 Budget announcement by the Prime Minister on Friday.

This was mentioned by Finance Minister II Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah in August, saying that it was among the 30 government initiatives in Budget 2015 to help people in facing the rising cost of living.