Here are excerpts from The Sunday Star (31 Aug 2008) regarding reactions from the middle-class community towards the Budget 2009 unveiled by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in Parliament yesterday.
Headlined as “Middle class feels let down by Budget 2009″, the story starts by saying the while Budget 2009 had buoyed the lower-income group, most middle class families say it overlooked their needs.
According to business consultant Yam Kin Lum, his family had already been tightening their belts since the fuel increase and the Budget did not give them any reason to “loosen up.”
“Our monthly electricity bill is about RM400. We also already have a rice cooker, and we are not even buying luxuries like imported cookies anymore. Is the Government telling us we should now buy imported fruit juice instead of rice? The relief offered is too little to matter as we try to keep up with rising living costs.”
The Budget states that households incurring monthly electricity bills of RM20 or less do not have to pay for the period from Oct 1 till the end of 2009. The Government has also offered to reduce import duties on consumer durables such as rice cookers and electric kettles, and grant full import duty exemption on several food items like biscuits and fruit juices.
“Even the increased tax rebate from RM350 to RM400 makes no difference to us. RM50 is not even enough to cover the cost of petrol to send my daughter from home in Cheras to college in Subang Jaya for a week,” added his wife, Patricia, 49.
In Ipoh, clerk S. Uthaya Kumaran, 44, who earns RM2,000 monthly, questioned how many families could actually benefit from being exempted from paying electricity if their bills were RM20 or less. “Who actually incurs a RM20 electricity bill? It’s ridiculous and will not help me at all.”
Engineer Andrew Khoo, 27, and sales manager Mohd Salman Mohd Ismail, 31, said they felt let down as the Budget did not really cater to the middle-income group. “Unless the house only uses lights without any other electrical appliances in use, it is impossible to have such a low power bill,” said Khoo. Mohd Salman said he was surprised that there were no goodies for the middle-income group which were the largest group of people in the country.