KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng explained today that the record RM314 billion Budget 2019 he tabled yesterday was due in part to income and consumption tax refunds accrued by the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.

After months of telling the country about the dire state of public debt, Lim presented the largest ever federal spending plan in the country’s history, eclipsing even the “mother of all Budgets” predecessor Datuk Seri Najib Razak tabled before Election 2018. 

"I have to be honest, the expenditure for operations increased because we were forced to make refund payments for the GST and income tax.

“If you see from the Budget, operational expenditure didn’t increase, but development increased to RM54.7 billion,” he said during a press conference in Parliament this morning.

He said this was part of the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government’s responsibility to pay back what was due to taxpayers.

Lim previously accused the BN government of “robbing” taxpayers of around RM19 billion in Goods and Services Tax (GST) input tax refunds. The Public Accounts Committee is investigating this claim.

“These funds were used without the knowledge and permission of taxpayers, and it is something that is wrong and shouldn’t happen,” he said today. 

Lim said tax refunds were set to be around RM37 billion, up from the projected RM34.5 billion.

“These, however, are normal additions as there will be more income tax refunds paid out from May this year up to next year.

“So this is not extraordinary,” he said.

Najib tabled an election Budget of RM280.5 billion last year and expanded this with a supplementary supply Bill to RM290 billion, which had been the largest in the country’s history until Lim’s spending proposal for next year.