A DAP lawmaker has questioned figures cited by Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) in its latest report – that the 2014 household income has climbed from RM5,000 a month to RM6,141.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng believes that Malaysians do not take the report seriously because the figures cited were “far from reality”, since three to four people in every 10 adults earn less than RM2,000 per month.

And Lim has his reasons for thinking as such.

The government, he said, announced in March this year that it had approved 7.1 million applicants for the 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BRIM). However, this aid is only extended to households with a monthly income of RM4,000 and below.

Malaysia’s current population is estimated at 31.7 million people and 36 percent of them, or 11.4 million Malaysians, are under the age of 20, with the remaining 20.3 million Malaysians considered as adults.

“This year, 7.1 million people from 20.3 million adults will receive BR1M. This means that in every 10 adult Malaysians, three to four people earn less than RM4,000 per household.

“How can it be possible that the household income of RM6,141 per month has been achieved if it is apparent that three to four people in every 10 adults earn less than RM2,000 per month?”

Lim further asked whether the figure of RM6,141 would shrink if KRI had excluded the country’s richest 200 from its survey.

“Rather than making self-indulgent announcements that Malaysia is heading towards a high-income nation by 2020, Barisan Nasional should accept the fact that the country’s household debt to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is the highest, if compared with other countries in the Asia Pacific,” he said.

Earlier this week, Bernama reported that the household income in 2014 improved by RM1,141 a month to RM6,141 a month from 2012, with growing contributions from current transfers, such as BR1M payments, as well as property and investment earnings.

According to the KRI report, The State of Households II, the growth rate of the lowest 40 percent of households had been the fastest.

KRI managing director Charon Mokhzani said while wages and salaries were the largest sources of incomes for heads of households, these only rose by 3.3 percent nominally, and one percent in real terms between 2012 and 2014.