Unsustainable budget deficits, partly on account of indiscriminate subsidies, have damaging effects on an economy. Budget deficits, like public debt, impinge on generational equity. We can build market confidence in our economy by the better targeting of subsidies to alleviate the plight of the vulnerable bottom 40 per cent of the population or B40. Blanket subsidies such as petrol subsidies tend to favour the rich more. SST, too, must be better targeted so that the B40 is hurt only minimally, if at all.

Source: New Strait Times May 29, 2018 01:30 UTC