PARLIAMENT | PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli would cause the country to go bankrupt if he were entrusted to govern Putrajaya, said Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani.

"If Pandan (Rafizi) governs the country, it will be bankrupt," he said during the winding up of the Budget 2018 debate at the Dewan Rakyat today.

The minister said this after Rafizi proposed to increase civil servants' bonus from RM1,500 to two months wages under Budget 2018, and 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) to RM2,000 from RM1,200 next year.

"If we pay two months bonus (to the civil servants, we need to pay out) RM13 billion," Johari said.

"If we were to increase BR1M to RM2,000 per recipient, an additional RM5.6 billion in cost will be incurred."

During his budget debate last Tuesday, Rafizi said BN would win the next election if it increases BR1M and bonus of civil servants, and revive the fuel subsidies.

Meanwhile, Johari took issue with the sales and services tax (SST) proposed in the Pakatan Harapan's shadow budget.

"Of all the 174 countries which are implementing the GST, none of them reverted back to SST, not even when a change of government took place," he said.

In the Asean region, Johari said, only Myanmar and Brunei which have yet to implement the GST.

Elaborating on the advantage of GST, he said it has a better record and checking system which puts all businesses under the radar.

"So, this indirectly allows a cross-check (of those who had evaded paying tax), and places all players on a level playing field," he added.