MCA president Wee Ka Siong has cried foul over an 81.8 percent funding cut to MCA-owned Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (Taruc).

Citing the federal expenditure estimate for Budget 2020, Wee pointed out the Education Ministry's funding for Taruc will be RM1 million, down from RM5.5 million in 2019.

Wee said the Education Ministry is the ministry was given the biggest budget this year but yet there was less money to Taruc.

He accused Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, who tabled the budget in the Dewan Rakyat today, of lacking empathy for poor Chinese students.

"The government allocation is to help students to reduce their tuition fees.

"You can proudly say how you can help Bumiputera students but do you think about these poor Chinese students, should they not get government allocation?" he said told journalists at the Dewan Rakyat lobby.

He said the move is contrary to the government's "shared prosperity" concept.

"This (allocation) was a promise made by the government by the government 50 years ago. We just want you to continue with the allocation.

"If you give them more, you are just helping the students to pay less, don't you have any empathy? he said.

Wee said the Pakatan Harapan government must be held accountable for the cut.

Earlier today, Lim tabled an RM297.020 billion budget, comprising RM241.020 billion in operations expenditure and RM56 billion in development expenditure.