You may walk away happy with a small income tax cut, or the fact that cigarette and beer taxes have not gone up. But there is much more to the Budget than just those few ringgit you saved...
* Whatever "goodies" we get, we pay it for in other ways. Those "goodies" are not free money handed out by the government. Those "goodies" are paid for with our tax money! Every Ringgit of "goodies" that we "get" is a Ringgit less for other important things, like healthcare or education, for example.
* Economist, financial analysts, the mass media and the ordinary public have been fixated on the annual Budget deficit staying withing 3-5% of gross domestic product (GDP). Public discussion has focused on the Budget deficit being "manageable" or "prudent" at that level. We ignored two things.
Firstly, while the deficit was steady at 3-5% of GDP, the actual level of government spending was soaring.
Secondly, as total government spending was going up, so was the absolute level of the deficit.
* If the government is running deficits to fund consumption spending by increasing government debt, we are leaving our children a legacy of debt
* The mainstream media and government are happy to keep the focus on "goodies" because it avoids discussion and debate on the really important issues - efficiency and accountability.
The book can be bought at Popular bookstore, tokobuku.fotopages.com, info at refsa.org.
