KUALA LUMPUR: The international trade and industry ministry’s 2021 budget was approved through a bloc vote after an heated argument between opposition MPs and minister Mohamed Azmin Ali.
Speaker Azhar Azizan Harun said there were 110 ayes and 104 nays, with six MPs absent.
Earlier, Azmin and Lim Guan Eng (PH-Bagan) exchanged words on the expenses for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) 2020 summit held in November.
Azmin said that in October 2018, Pakatan Harapan had approved RM635 million for the conference but the amount was reduced to RM350 million in July last year.
Due to Covid-19, the Apec meeting was held online. This saw the ministry using only RM66.6 million while the remainder of RM233.4 million was returned to the finance ministry for use in its Covid-19 stimulus packages.
However, Lim said the figures were still too high.
“Are you ready to be probed by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and to be accountable on the budget?” Lim asked.
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