PUTRAJAYA, March 11 — Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today offered to have his salary slashed to help government coffers.

The Pagoh MP was asked if members of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration would take a pay cut, considering the larger size of the Cabinet, compared to that of Pakatan Harapan's (PH).

"I will do it first. I will have my salary cut by, I don't know, 5 per cent or 10 per cent. We did not discuss it today, but don't pre-empt.

"I think most of us here are willing to do what we can. If we can save some millions, we will do that,” Muhyiddin said.

After the PH government won Putrajaya in 2018, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s first official policy move was to reduce Cabinet members’ pay by 10 per cent, replicating a similar step he took in 1981.

The pay cut appeared designed to reinforce his previous revelation that Malaysia was over RM1 trillion in debt due to the excesses and abuses of the defeated Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.

He also invited senior civil servants to joi the austerity move, but said he would leave this at the discretion of the individual ministries.

A federal minister's monthly basic salary is about RM14,907.20, while the prime minister and deputy prime minister's monthly basic salaries total RM22,826.65 and RM18,168.15 respectively.