KUALA LUMPUR, August 5 — Anwar Ibrahim told Parliament today that providing an additional allocation of RM38 billion for health would result in the government breaching its self-imposed debt ceiling.
The finance minister, who is also the prime minister, sought to clarify Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad’s reported remarks at a recent event about government debt having already exceeded the statutory limit of 65 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“With reference to the Ministry of Health (MOH), I asked the minister and he said he had raised it because an additional RM38 billion was requested. I did say that he would have to explain that that amount would breach – if RM38 billion is added,” Anwar told Opposition Leader Hamzah Zainuddin during Ministers’ Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat.
“If it’s not added, then there must be an explanation. That’s what I told him. There’s no contradiction. He needs to clarify because a request for an additional RM38 billion will cause a breach. But we didn’t approve the additional allocation.”
Hamzah (PN-Larut) earlier pointed out to the finance minister that Dzulkefly had said government debt to GDP has already breached the 65 per cent ceiling.
In his debate yesterday on the tabling of the 13th Malaysia Plan (13MP), the opposition leader also raised Dzulkefly’s remarks about the debt ceiling in a “viral” video.
“He said the country’s debt has exceeded 65 per cent, even though the [Public Finance and] Fiscal Responsibility Act sets a statutory debt limit of 65 per cent of GDP,” said Hamzah.
CodeBlue previously reported Dzulkefly as saying at a Covid-19 book launch in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, on July 27 that the public health care budget cannot be increased by another 2 per cent of GDP – equivalent to RM36 billion – because of government debt to GDP that has gone “beyond” the 65 per cent statutory limit.
Upon request by the MOH, CodeBlue later made a correction to Dzulkefly’s remarks in the article to quote him as saying that government debt to GDP has gone “towards”, not “beyond”, the debt ceiling.
Today, in his response to the opposition leader in Parliament, Anwar did not say that Dzulkefly was misquoted.
Dzulkefly’s comments at the launch of the book titled Crisis and Community: Covid-19 in Malaysia, edited by Bridget Welsh – which was broadcast live on Facebook – were made in response to a member of the audience who proposed increasing the MOH’s budget from 3 per cent to 5 per cent of GDP, instead of privatising the public health care system through Rakan KKM.
MOH received RM45.3 billion for Budget 2025, a 9.8 per cent increment from the RM41.2 billion allocated last year. An extra RM36 billion allocation, as cited by Dzulkefly, is equivalent to a 79 per cent increase of MOH’s 2025 budget, totalling RM81.3 billion.
According to a December 2024 report by MOH’s Malaysia National Health Accounts, Malaysia’s total expenditure on health reached 4.6 per cent of GDP in 2023, comprising 2.4 per cent public and 2.2 per cent private sources of financing.
