KUALA LUMPUR: The Dewan Rakyat passed three budgets for the Works, Transport as well as Science, Technology and Innovation ministries at the committee level today.
This makes five budgets passed with bloc voting so far and eight with voice votes at the committee stage.
The Works Ministry's RM7.35 billion budget was passed through voice votes, with Deputy Speaker Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said presiding over the session.
The ministry's budget wrap-up speech was delivered by Senior Works Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.
The Transport Ministry's allocation of RM6.05 billion under the Supply (Budget) Bill 2021 on the other hand, was passed via a bloc vote at the committee stage.
The budget was supported by 109 members of parliament, 94 voted against it while 17 were absent.
In his winding-up speech, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong said the government has allocated RM23.3 million under the 2021 Budget to cover 30 per cent of legal fees in the ongoing trial for the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Eastern Ukraine in 2014.
"The reason we are spending this is because this is a Malaysian aircraft.
"We want to ensure that those responsible for the crime are brought to justice," he said in response to Datuk Jalaluddin Alias (Barisan Nasional-Jelebu).
Last month, judges hearing the case against four defendants in the downing of MH17 rejected a defence request for more time to investigate alternative explanations for the crash.
MH17 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down by a missile fired from a territory held by pro-Russian rebels during fighting with Ukrainian government troops, international investigators say.
All 298 people on board were killed.
Later in his wrap up speech, Dr Wee's refusal to entertain questions by his predecessor Anthony Loke (Pakatan Harapan - Seremban) led to bloc voting.
Loke had asked Dr Wee to review the government's decision to withdraw the cancellation of the cabotage exemption for undersea cable maintenance works.
"I want to ask for a bloc vote because the minister did not answer the questions posed to him," Loke said, to which Deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Rashid Hasnon accepted his request.
Disputes regarding the cancellation of cabotage exemption were raised during the ministry's policy stage debate last week where Dr Wee was repeatedly interrupted by Loke and Gobind Singh Deo (PH-Puchong) who was formerly communications and multimedia minister.
The two claimed that Dr Wee did not understand the digital industry and the negative impact that could occur due to the cancellation of the cabotage exemption for vessels that conducted undersea cable maintenance.
Meanwhile, the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry's budget was also passed through voice votes at the committee level with Mohd Rashid presiding over the sitting.
Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, answering questions from MPs, clarified that not all of the RM3 billion allocation under the 2021 Budget would be used to obtain Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer Inc.
Khairy said he was aware of a statement attributed to Tan Sri Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (BN-Gua Musang) on the cost of purchasing the Pfizer vaccines.
"(The statement claimed) the procurement of Pfizer vaccines is around RM2 billion, while for storage and transportation and such, is around RM1 billion.
"I can categorically state in this Parliament that (the statement) is baseless and completely inaccurate," Khairy said in response to Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (PH-Kuala Selangor), who asked the minister to clarify whether the allegation was true.
Khairy reiterated the actual procurement cost from Pfizer could not be disclosed as there was a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) in place.
"But our agreements with Pfizer and through Covax is still way within our reach of RM3 billion allocation for (vaccines to cover) 70 per cent of the population," he said.
Khairy said the government had so far signed two agreements to secure enough supply of Covid-19 vaccine for 30 per cent of the country's total population.
The agreement with Pfizer, inked on Nov 24, comprised the purchase of 12.8 million doses or 20 per cent of Malaysia's population.