MP for Alor Setar Gooi Hsiao Leung has urged the government to release a pre-budget report to the public and to have a non-partisan body assess the budget prior to it being presented to Parliament.

In a press statement today, Gooi said that a more transparent budget process was needed because of the serious state of the country’s economy and the expected introduction of a Goods and Services (GST) tax in the upcoming October budget.

“I urge the government to furnish a pre-budget report to the public at least one month ahead of tabling the budget to allow a more meaningful and informed debate both by the public and in Parliament.

“Secondly, I ask the government to establish a non-partisan Independent Budget Office, as adopted by many countries, including the UK and US, which would be responsible for making non-partisan assessments of public finances and budget proposals,” he said.  

NONE Gooi ( left ) said that the establishment of such a body would improve scrutiny, assess fiscal targets, and provide reports and analysis of economic and budgetary issues to support Parliament in the budget process.

“With a deteriorating economic outlook facing our country there is an urgent need to initiate reforms on the budgetary procedure,” Gooi said.

Gooi cited an international survey carried out on budget transparency and accountability called the Open Budget Index (OBI) survey, there are five categories of ranking on budget transparency in the OBI and Malaysia is in the second lowest among the likes of Angola, Sierra Leone, Lebanon and Serbia.

“There is serious national concern currently on the state of our economy and its management. I hope the government will not merely brush aside calls to improve accountability and transparency in our budget process,” he added.