PETALING JAYA: The audacious move by the Pakatan Harapan government to abolish the goods and services tax (GST) may not necessarily derail Malaysia from its fiscal deficit target, as feared by many economic pundits. Fiscal consolidation measures are not new in Malaysia, as the previous Barisan Nasional government had sought to trim the country’s fiscal deficit, a measure of how much the national expenditure has exceeded revenue. With the fiscal consolidation move, Malaysia’s fiscal deficit has been brought down significantly from 6.7% in 2009 to 3% in 2017. Under Budget 2018, the Barisan government had projected a fiscal deficit of 2.8% this year. On the other hand, in its 2018 alternative budget, Pakatan estimated a fiscal deficit target of 2.04% in 2018.

Source: The Star May 22, 2018 22:07 UTC