The government needs to spend RM43 billion if it were to abolish the National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) as aspired by the opposition, said Najib Razak.

The prime minister said any move to abolish the PTPTN would impose a burden on the government.

"There are only three countries in the world that fully bear the cost of higher education for the people such as Norway. But Norway imposes a high taxation rate on the people," he said when launching the programme 'Jelajah Janji Ditepati' attended by 50,000 people at the Batu Pahat Stadium today.

The government did not want to burden the people by imposing high taxation in order to abolish the PTPTN, said Najib who is also the finance minister.

Even now, he said, the government bore about 90 percent of the cost of higher education for the people, with the PTPTN being utilised only to pay for the tuition fees for the students.

Student group to protest

He said this when commenting on the call by the opposition parties which planned to abolish the PTPTN if they were to win the next general election.

NONE Student groups are set to protest in Dataran Merdeka next Saturday in demanding the abolishment of PTPTN

Meanwhile in his speech, the prime minister also said that he would announce the government decision on the minimum wage policy at the end of the month.

He also announced to the thousands of people who had attended the programme that the government had agreed to allocate RM6 million for the construction of a new Batu Pahat public market.

Najib said the government had also agreed to allocate RM3 million for the construction of a new wholesale market for the district as well as providing an allocation to repair clogged drains in Batu Pahat town.

- Bernama