Budget 2023 - Focus of Parliament sitting to begin this Monday

KUALA LUMPUR: The tabling of Budget 2023 will be the focus of the Third Meeting of the Fifth Session of the 14th Parliament which is scheduled to sit for 32 days beginning this Monday (Oct 3).

Based on the Parliament's website, the Supply (Budget) Bill 2023 will be tabled by Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz at 4 pm on Oct 7.

Themed 'Strengthening Recovery, Facilitating Reforms Towards Sustainable Socio-Economic Resilience of Keluarga Malaysia', the bill will be discussed at the policy level from Oct 11 to Oct 26.

The committee-level debate will start from Nov 3 to 23 before the bill is approved by Dewan Rakyat.

Based on to the original calendar of Parliament, the coming session of the Dewan Rakyat was supposed to be for 31 days from Oct 26 to Dec 15, 2022, but it has been brought forward to Oct 3 to speed up the tabling of Budget 2023.

Meanwhile, the sitting might be the last session for the 14th Parliament due to speculations that Parliament will be dissolved several days after the tabling of Budget 2023 to pave the way for the 15th General Election (GE15).

In November 1999, the ninth Parliament was dissolved when the Dewan Rakyat meeting was in progress and before Budget 2000 was approved.

Tun Dr Mohamed Zahir Ismail, who was Dewan Rakyat Speaker at the time explained that Budget 2000 which was being debated then and five bills that had been approved by the Dewan Rakyat needed to be re-tabled at the new Parliament session as they had not been brought to the Dewan Negara and had yet to become law.

At the upcoming Dewan Rakyat session, the Control of Tobacco Products and Smoking Bill 2022 will be among the focus after it was referred to the Parliamentary Special Select Committee during the Dewan Rakyat meeting on August 2.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had previously said that he was confident that the bill which was proposed to be tabled for the second reading at this meeting would receive the support of the majority of the Members of Parliament.

The Bill, among others, aims to prohibit the sale and use of any form of smoking material including electronic cigarettes or vaping to individuals born on Jan 1, 2007, onwards.

Meanwhile, Trade Unions (Amendment) Bill 2022, Renewable Energy (Amendment) Bill 2022, Printing of Qur'anic Texts (Amendment) Bill 2022 and Sustainable Energy Development Authority (Amendment) Bill 2022 postponed for the second and third readings, are expected to be tabled in the upcoming sitting.

The motion for the election of a Deputy Speaker for the Dewan Rakyat to replace Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said which has been postponed for the fourth time is also much awaited at the upcoming session.

-- BERNAMA