KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 – The government, through the National Finance Council (NFC), has agreed to improve grants and financial support for each state amounting to RM8.9 billion this year.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said this was decided during the NFC meeting he chaired on Thursday.
The meeting was also attended by all menteri besar and chief ministers.
Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, said the federal government is committed to collaborating with all state governments to advance comprehensive national development.
“Based on the principles of humanity and ‘rahmatan lil alamin’, which form the MADANI Economy framework, enhancing grants to state governments can directly benefit all Malaysians regardless of ethnicity, religion or geography,” he said in a statement,
Anwar said that the increase in grants involves all states and will be provided simultaneously.
“As such, I hope that the state governments can fully utilise this grant to guarantee the welfare of the people and promote the development of the state more sustainably,” said the prime minister.
According to the Ministry of Finance (MoF), the allocation for 2024 was an increase compared to RM8.3 billion last year and RM8.1 billion in 2022.
The ministry said that the increase comprised state road maintenance grants of RM5.4 billion, grants based on the Economic, Infrastructure and Welfare Development-Based Grants (TAHAP) of RM400 million, and ecological fiscal transfer grants (RM200 million).
MoF said that the additional annual special grants to Sarawak and Sabah were significantly increased to RM300 million each, compared to RM16 million for Sarawak and RM129.7 million for Sabah last year.
State libraries and museums grants were also raised by 10 per cent this year, it said.
“As for development expenditure, as much as RM39.4 billion is provided for this year to carry out state development projects, compared to RM36.7 billion in 2023 and RM28.8 billion in 2022.
