Sell off government jets, Rafizi tells PM
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak should sell off the government jets he uses for travel as part of austerity measures, says PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli.
Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak should sell off the government jets he uses for travel as part of his austerity measures, says PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli.
The PKR vice-president was responding to Najib's announcement this morning that the National Service Training Programme will be deferred to save the government RM400 million.
The announcement is part of a budget restructuring following falling government revenue due to the global oil price fall and the weakening ringgit.
"Cutting RM400 million is too small to make an impact. RM400 million is like the cost of two jets.
"It would be better if he (Najib) just sells off the two jets for the RM400 million," Rafizi ( left ) told a press conference at the PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya this afternoon.
Najib usually travels via a Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Airbus ACJ319.
The government also owns three other official jets, a Boeing Business Jet, a Bombardier Global Express and a Dassault Falcon 900.
Rafizi said it was also disappointing that this morning’s announcement by Najib had “no mention of cost cutting measures for the Prime Minister’s Department”.
By right, he said, Najib should reduce the budget allocation for his department which was RM19 billion in the last budget announcement.
Rafizi reiterated that the announcement made this morning also did not take into account the main problem, which is the weakening of the ringgit.
“With the value of the ringgit falling, the inflation that we are facing now is imported inflation.
“Najib’s answer does not reflect any urgency to deal with the problem of the falling ringgit,” Rafizi added.


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