KUALA LUMPUR: The Pakatan Harapan's 2018 Alternative Budget is a mere populist budget with the sole purpose of scoring votes in the upcoming 14th General Election (GE14).
Gerakan vice-president Datuk Dominic Lau said, the opposition's alternative budget was unrealistic, adding that the pact was only trying to "make the people happy".
He said, after reviewing the shadow budget, he made the conclusion that it was just a modification from Barisan Nasional's (BN) previous budgets.
"In fact look at the details of the budget. The basis of their budget is mainly from BN. The budget of BN is RM260billion and they put it at RM258billion. The difference is only around one per cent.
"Now look at (allocations) proposed by BN on development which is 20 per cent and the operating expenses is 80 per cent.
"Pakatan Harapan just changed it to 23 per cent for development and 77 per cent for operating expenses. So the difference is just around 3 per cent. They just modified it from BN's," he said when contacted.
The opposition coalition today unveiled its version of 2018 budget where the pact said it will abolish the goods and services tax (GST), provide free public education and increase the petroleum royalty in four states to 20 per cent, among others.
Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism deputy minister Datuk Henry Sum Agong when met at the Parliament Wednesday, described the opposition's alternative budget as "an empty promise".
"They can say anything but for us GST is important, that's why we imposed it. This includes the 1Malaysia People's Aid (BR1M) which is also important.
"I see it (the alternative budget) as an empty promise, nothing more," he said.
Meanwhile, Umno's Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah merely laughed when asked for his opinion on the alternative budget.
He said, in a sarcastic tone that "it's good" that Pakatan Harapan wanted to abolish GST but "only if they can afford it".
"They said they want to increase oil royalty to 20 per cent? Did they really? I think it's good if they have the money to do so.
"Maybe they have other plans. So just abolish GST if they want to or they can abolish other things as well," he said.
When asked if the alternative budget made sense, Tengku Razaleigh said: "It make sense for people who have no sense!"