Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin expressed scepticism over whether the government will deliver Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s Budget 2018 promises.

He pointed out that the allocations for the various promises under Budget 2018 would not be disbursed in one ago and claimed those earmarked for after the 14th general election may not come.

“This is an election budget. As I have already explained, not all the allocations will be disbursed.

“They will disburse for the first phase so that when elections are here, money for whatever they have promised would have already been disbursed. Then (for the rest) they would wait until the election is over, or maybe there won’t be an election at all.

“These are the issues that we need to think about. We shouldn’t be easily fooled, simply because there are many handouts, offers and candies distributed in yesterday’s (Friday’s) budget.

“Although I don’t think this is a bad budget, I’m confident a large portion of it will not be fulfilled,” Muhyiddin told a forum in Putrajaya last night.

He also said the budget is full of one-off initiatives that are not sustainable.

Earlier in the forum, Muhyiddin explained that after Parliament approved the budget, the various ministries would still have to submit papers to the Economic Planning Unit to seek approval for disbursement.

After that, the disbursal of the funds would require the finance minister’s approval, he said...