VIDEO | 193:02 mins

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak took two and a half hours to unveil the details of Budget 2014 today.

Clad in a bright orange 'baju Melayu', Najib - to the delight of Pakatan Rakyat MPs as they waved their orange alternative budget booklet - started to address Parliament at 4pm.

Malaysiakini brings you the salient points of the budget speech here as it unfolds.

You can also check out the updates on Twitter @malaysiakini and Facebook.com/malaysiakini.

In his speech, Najib takes potshots at Pakatan over allegations there were 40,000 Bangladeshis voting in the 13th general election.

"According to the 2010 Population and Housing Census, estimates for 2013 indicate that there are 18.6 million Malays and bumiputera (67.9% of total population) including Muslims and non-Muslims, Chinese, 6.6 million (24%) Indians, 2 million (7.2%), while there are 259,000 (0.9%) people of other ethnic groups. This means there are about 27.4 million Malaysian citizens.

"However, this does not include the 40,000 Bangladeshis who were

brought in as phantom voters in the recent 13th general election as alleged by the opposition. Till today no one has even seen them or their shadow. Enough of lies. Ask for forgiveness from Him."

The theme of Budget 2014 is 'Strengthening economic resilience, accelerating transformation and fulfilling promises'.

Budget 2014 in graphics

VIDEO l Analysis by experts l 49 min

AT A GLANCE

Total budget: RM264.2 billion

Operation expenditure: RM217.7 billion

Development expenditure: RM46.5 billion

GDP growth

2014: 4.5% - 5.5%

2013: 4.5% - 5.5%

2012: 4.5% - 5.0%

Revenue

2014: RM224.1 bil

2013: RM220.1 bil

2012: RM206.2 bil

Deficit

2014: 3.5% of GDP

2013: 4.0%

2012: 4.5%

Domestic economic prospects

• Net foreign direct investment was higher at RM18.2 billion in the first half of 2013 compared with RM15.9 billion during the same period in 2012.

• International reserves remained strong at RM444.9 billion at Oct 14, sufficient to finance 9.7 months of retained imports and 3.9 times the short-term external debt.

• For entire 2013, domestic economy expected to expand 4.5% - 5%. Growth supported by private investment, increasing 16.2% to estimated RM165 billion.

• Private and public consumption expected to grow 7.4% and 7.3% respectively

• Domestic economy projected to grow at a stronger pace of 5% to 5.5%. Growth to be driven by private investment at 12.7%, and private consumption 6.2%.

• Exports of goods expected to grow 2.5% over improving external demand. On the supply side, construction sector expected to grow 9.6%, services sector at 5.7%.

• Unemployment rate estimated at 3.1%, inflation rate to remain low between 2% and 3%.

• Per capita income for 2014 expected to reach RM34,126. Plans to achieve the target per capita income of RM46,500 in and even "achieve developed nation status much earlier than 2020".

Goods and Services Tax

• Government to introduce Goods and Services Tax (GST) at 6% starting April 1, 2015. Sales and Services Tax to be abolished.

• Items to be exempted from GST - rice, sugar, salt, flour, cooking oil, dhal, chilli, herbs, salted fish, cincalok, budu, belacan, piped water, electricity (for first 200 for domestic use), government services, public transport (bus, LRT, ferry, toll) sales and purchase of property or rental of property.

• Implementation comes with a reduction in tax structure effective from 2015. Generally, those with family and earning RM4,000 and below need no longer pay income tax.

• After GST, a one-off cash payment of RM300 to be made to those now receiving BR1M help.

• GST monitoring committee to be chaired by Minister of Finance II Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah to ensure smooth implementation.

Tax incentives

• To help the employer's burden of implementing of minimum wage scheme - RM900 in Peninsula Malaysia and RM800 in Sabah and Sarawak, the government will introduce extra tax incentives for whole of 2014. This is to help employers to top up salaries of their employees to the minimum level.

• Corporate tax rate cut by 1 percentage point from 25% to 24%, for SMEs reduction from 20% to 19% from year of assessment 2016.

• Cooperative tax rate cut by 1 to 2 percentage points from year of assessment 2015.

Projects and allocations

• Projects to be implemented include 316km West Coast Expressway from Banting to Taiping. and double-tracking projects from Ipoh to Padang Besar and later from Gemas to Johor Bahru.

• National Entrepreneur Development Office to be established to plan and coordinate all entrepreneurship activities.

• RM1 billion investment in companies scoring high on Environmental, Social and Governance Index.