INTERACTIVE: 11 years of ministries’ spending ranked

By SHYAFIQ DZULKIFLI

PETALING JAYA: Ahead of Budget 2027, which is due to be tabled on Oct 9, The Star looks back at a decade of federal expenditure.

An analysis of 11 budget tablings between 2016 and 2026 shows that the Education Ministry, Finance Ministry, and Health Ministry have remained among the three largest recipients of federal allocations.

The crown for the highest-funded portfolio, however, has changed hands between the Education and Finance ministries over the years.

The Education Ministry held the top spot from 2016 to 2018 before reclaiming it in 2020 and 2021, and again in 2025 and 2026.

The Finance Ministry, meanwhile, rose to the top in 2019 and dominated the rankings from 2022 to 2024.

The Health Ministry, meanwhile, remained at number three spot throughout all 11 years.

At the other end of the ranking, the bottom three positions were more frequently, with the National Unity, Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development, and Plantation and Commodities ministries rotating among the lowest-funded portfolios.

For most of the past decade, ministries in the bottom three received less than RM1bil each.

In Budget 2026, the three largest recipients were the Education, Finance and Health ministries, which received a combined RM159.70bil, or 52% of the RM306.88bil allocated to the 32 federal ministry portfolios.

The Education Ministry received a record RM66.20bil, followed by the Finance Ministry at RM46.98bil and the Health Ministry at RM46.52bil.

Over the 11-year period, the Education Ministry received the highest accumulation allocation at RM592.92bil.

The Health Ministry recorded the largest increase over the period, with its allocation rising by more than 100% from RM22.74bil in 2016 to RM46.52bil in 2026.

The Finance Ministry recorded the largest fluctuation, with its allocation surging to a decade-high RM105.86bil in 2023.

That amount represented 32.9% of the total allocations to ministries that year, or nearly one in every three ringgit.

At the other end of the scale, the National Unity Ministry received the smallest allocation at RM767.99mil, equivalent to 0.25% of the total.

It was followed by the Plantation and Commodities Ministry, which received RM810.09mil, and the Entrepreneur and Cooperatives Development Ministry, which received RM1.03 billion.

Together, the three ministries received RM2.61bil, or less than 0.9% of total allocations to the 32 federal ministry portfolios.

The figures cover direct allocations to federal ministry portfolios.

They exclude statutory expenditure, including debt servicing and civil service pensions, as well as allocations for independent constitutional bodies and commissions.

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