The Dewan Rakyat will resume sitting tomorrow for its final, yet most extensive session in 2014, with issues of cost of living and government's policies yet again set for the limelight.
 
The sitting, which starts tomorrow, will extend until the end of November. Most of its debate is set to be dominated by the 2015 budget, which will tabled this Friday.
 
However, a protest has already been planned by PAS Youth and several NGOs in front of the Parliament gates on Wednesday to make their grouses known against the recent fuel subsidy cuts that has resulted in an increase in the prices of RON95 petrol as well as diesel.
 
Two days later, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak will table the sixth federal budget of his tenure, which should include finer details of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which will be introduced in April 2015.
 
The budget might give a clearer idea on items affected and the mechanisms of the GST implementation, which the government insists will not spike up overall costs of living despite assertions otherwise by the opposition and civil society.
 
With the topic of living costs dominating the main discourses throughout 2014, all eyes will be on Najib's administration on what it can deliver for the lower and middle class categories, especially with the government's move to rationalise subsidies and also to introduce GST at a rate of six percent.
 
IRB investment panel

Among the contentious bills expected this time around is an amendment to the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) Act, which intends to set up an investment panel within IRB and gives power to Najib to appoint members to it.
 
Critics, including tax experts and opposition lawmakers, had voiced their unhappiness with the bill which they fear would allow the panel to use taxpayers' money for investment purposes and the bill was withdrawn in the June sitting.
 
But the bill, according to PKR, is returning intact for this sitting without amendments.

Also the long-awaited report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Sahah's Illegal Immigrants is likely to be tabled in Parliament in this session. The RCI completed its inquiry over a year ago and while its report is ready earlier this year, it has yet to be released to the public.
 
There had also been rumours about the Election Commission tabling a motion for delimitation in this sitting but it has denied this.
 
Pakatan Rakyat, which won 89 federal parliamentary seats in the general elections last year, will resume Parliament with only 87 representatives following former Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim's (left) sacking from PKR, while in May, DAP lost the Teluk Intan by-election.
 
The sitting will also see Pakatan Rakyat's top leaders come in close contact again following a fractious two and a half months in which the Selangor MB crisis led to a fallout between leaders of PAS with those of DAP and PKR.

Indeed there has also been a fallout within PAS.
 
However all parties have expressed their intention to close ranks following the appointment of Azmin Ali as the Selangor MB.