If the government can be compared to a business entity, all the revenue collected including corporate tax and oil royalties rightly belong to the citizens, aka the shareholders.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is akin to a company’s sales volume, and it is of little meaning if there is no cash profit. As the saying goes, ‘show me the money’!

It is unthinkable to ask shareholders to inject new funds into the company year after year. At some point in time, personal tax must reduce to zero, after which the government should start paying dividends to the citizens.

Otherwise, the CEO and managers should be dismissed. The assets under the management of the government are so huge, it does not qualify to compare itself with charitable organisations which require donations every year.

National debt as a percentage of GDP is comparable to the debt gearing ratio of a company. The higher a company's degree of leverage, the more the company is considered risky. Of course, some industries are conventionally running on higher debt gearing ratio.

However, higher debt must be accompanied by higher earning or net profit. Dividends funded by high debt instead of profit earned by a company is known as a Ponzi scheme.

A company may allocate some budget to improve the welfare of its workers. However, excuses are unacceptable if the company does not show money to the shareholders.

In the same manner, the oil and gas subsidy is not the generosity of the government. It is a price that the country, aka the citizens, is paying in order to attract investors to create jobs for the nation.

The subsidy must reduce with time, and money returned to the citizens to fight against inflation, while at the same time reduces the cost of doing business and increases value-added productivity to avoid chasing away the investors.

Subsidy leads to wastage. Reducing subsidy leads to savings. Overall, the gain will be more than the loss, provided the savings is not wasted in some other leakages.