Budget 2024: Measures will be taken to increase food security, says PM

The Star

Various forms of subsidies and incentives amounting to RM2.6bil will be channeled to padi farmers and fishermen, said Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim when tabling Budget 2024 at the Dewan Rakyat on Friday (Oct 13).  Read more at https://tinyurl.com/ms4vypez  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

Transcript

00:00 Prime Minister Datuk Sri Anwar Ibrahim tabled the Malaysia Madani 2024 budget in the Dewan

00:08 Rakyat on Friday. He started by saying that the government's revenues are expected to

00:13 increase from RM303.2 billion this year to RM307.6 billion next year. He added that the

00:22 fiscal deficit is expected to be reduced to 4.3 per cent next year. With a total allocation

00:28 of RM393.8 billion for the budget, Anwar said the government will continue to reform its

00:34 subsidy system to one that is targeted and spent on areas that need it the most. He said

00:40 various forms of subsidies and incentives amounting to RM2.6 billion will be channelled

00:46 to padi farmers and fishermen.

00:48 "The government will continue to make great efforts to guarantee the continuity of the

00:51 agri-food industry. The subsidy scheme for padi farmers that we raised from RM360 to

01:00 RM500 per metric tonne has been of great benefit to the farmers. But there is still a lot of

01:08 controversy because the investors have lowered the minimum price to RM1,200 per metric tonne.

01:15 Whereas before this, the price of padi farmers was much higher. I agree to increase the

01:22 price of padi farmers to RM1,300 per metric tonne. The subsidy for padi farmers from Bukit

01:28 or Padihuma has been increased to RM50 million. To benefit the fishermen, the government

01:35 will maintain the diesel subsidy at the lowest price, which is RM1.65 per litre to fishermen

01:43 class 1 with a capacity of RM840 million per year. Fishermen are also given a lifetime

01:53 allowance of RM300 per month and a fishermen's catch incentive of RM1,000 per month."

02:01 Anwar, who is also finance minister, said the government had embarked on a pilot project

02:05 for five padi planting seasons to over two years in places like Botakiri in Pera, Kangga

02:11 in Perlis and Kota Sarang, 64 Semud in Kedah. He said RM400 million will be used for the

02:18 implementation of the food security reinforcement programme and a special focus will be given

02:23 to increase the production of local food crops that still depend on foreign imports. Anwar

02:29 also said the government will double allocations for the National Scam Response Centre from

02:34 RM10 million to RM20 million next year.

02:37 "The issue of scams has been raised by Mr Ahmad. The National Scam Response Centre has

02:44 handled more than 49,000 calls and has managed to freeze up to RM60 million in transactions.

02:52 The government will increase the allocation of NSRC to RM20 million, which is now RM10

02:58 million, to counteract the scams. The civil expenditure will become RM10 million in addition.

03:05 Under the Malaysian Foreign Securities Fund, it is our people's fate to be victims of

03:12 a little bit of embezzlement and other cases of foreign corruption."

03:18 He added that Bank Negara Malaysia is working with the financial sector to develop a national

03:23 fraud portal to expedite the detection, freezing and repatriation of funds involved in fraudulent

03:29 activities.

03:30 For live UN video visit www.un.org/webcast

03:37 �

03:38 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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