The government is seeking parliament's approval for an additional RM27.2 billion allocation for its operating and development expenditures last year.

The Finance Ministry tabled a second supplementary supply estimates bill to the Dewan Rakyat on Monday.

The bill is expected to be debated by parliamentarians for three days at its second reading tomorrow or next Monday.

In the Budget 2003, the government had allocated RM72.8 billion for operating expenditures while approximately RM37 billion for development expenditures.

The government was given the green light during the last Parliament sitting in June for the first additional allocation, which amounted to RM4.5 billion.

This means the government had spent a total of RM135.4 billion as of last year.

The Defence Ministry topped the list of 17 ministries seeking additional development expenditures of RM6.1 billion in the second supplementary supply estimates bill.

The ministry is seeking an extra allocation of RM1.6 billion, followed by the Education Ministry with RM974.2 million and the Works Ministry with RM922.8 million.

The Defence Ministry had spent RM1.6 billion on the construction of three new naval bases and the procurement of military equipments such as main battle tanks, armoured comfit system, floating bridge, a Super Lynx helicopter and the Scorpene submarine.

Salaries and allowances

As for the government's operating expenditure of RM21.1 billion, the money, was among others, spent on the salaries and allowances of commissioners from the Election Commission, Public Services Commission and Education Services Commission.

Apart from this, an additional allocation of RM288,792 was needed to pay the salary and allowance increment of the Queen.

Another extra allocation of RM419,400 was needed to meet the allowances increment for the former King from RM13,200 to RM15,280 monthly and for the former Queen from RM3,500 to RM4,500 per month.

The Housing and Local government ministry is seeking an extra allocation of RM68 million, which it had spent on a cleanliness campaign while the Health Ministry is asking for RM20 million due to the 'Tak Nak' anti-smoking campaign.

The Information Ministry is seeking for an extra RM45 million to meet the cost for telecasting the SEA Games live from Vietnam.

In another development, the Finance Ministry in a written reply to Tan Kok Wai (DAP-Cheras) disclosed that the federal government's debt stood at RM200 billion as of May 31 this year.

Out of this figure, RM166 billion is internal debt while the rest is external.

The reply said the government has cleared RM9 billion of the debt as of the same period.