Report: Finance minister to meet with Pakatan leaders to discuss Budget 2021
KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 1 — Several Pakatan Harapan (PH) lawmakers will reportedly be meeting Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz to discuss Budget 2021 later today.
PKR secretary-general Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail confirmed the matter, adding that an invitation was sent to party president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and subsequently accepted.
“The Finance Ministry sent a letter to the PKR president to invite him to the Budget consultation tomorrow. PKR was asked to send only four representatives,” Saifuddin Nasution was quoted as saying by The Malaysian Insight.
The meeting is expected to take place at 3pm, the report added.
In the same report, it was also said that DAP and Amanah — component parties of PH — would also each be represented by three leaders, making up a total of 10 lawmakers who would be representing PH.
On October 29, the Opposition bloc had urged Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to discuss the content of Budget 2021 before tabling it in Dewan Rakyat, following the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s call for MPs to back it.
The joint statement was co-signed by Anwar, Parti Amanah Negara president Mohamad Sabu, and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, and was issued following its presidential council meeting that day.
The Budget is set to be tabled on November 6, and it was initially expected to be rejected as Muhyiddin does not have a strong enough majority in the Dewan Rakyat to get it passed.
By convention, a rejection of the federal Budget is considered a successful vote of no-confidence against the ruling party and should be followed by the resignation of the entire Cabinet.
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