Putrajaya has regularly sought Parliament's permission for additional funds every year but the frequency of this has reduced, said Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani.

"In the past, (the federal government) might table (a supplementary budget) up to four times (a year).

"But over the past three to four years, we only do it once (a year). We have improved our efficiency," he told reporters on the sidelines of the Finance Ministry open day event at its Putrajaya headquarters.

He said the supplementary budget was necessary to rectify certain details in Budget 2018.

"We are very transparent," he stressed.

The Supplementary Supply (2017) Bill 2018 was tabled on Monday to seek an additional RM7.122 billion for the government's purse.

Most of the money is meant to be used for statutory funds (RM2.7 billion) while RM82.07 million has been allocated for the Election Commission.

According to business weekly The Edge, the federal government's debt has been growing at 10 percent a year on average totalling RM687.43 billion as of end-September 2017 up from RM266.72 billion in 2007.

This was in part due to the growing cost of running the government which increased six percent a year over the past decade.

The growth of the government's debt is far outpacing revenue growth which grew only at a rate of 4.9 percent per annum over the same period.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has repeatedly stressed that the government's debt was manageable and Malaysia still stood in good stead with international rating agencies.