I am looking forward to a new budget that is truly “rakyat” friendly with an honest to goodness “people first” approach. To do this, the government has to really think out of the box with drastic yet creative measures to achieve such a proposal. Move away from traditional planning of budgets to create a win-win strategy for the Malaysian people at large so that they can see where and how their money is benefiting the nation as a whole.
Below are some of my personal initial ideas for consideration:
1. National “Community Chest” Charity Fund - to be created and collections specifically channeled towards community and charitable projects that will be professionally managed for all Malaysians
- Impose 1% charity tax for companies on top of the annual corporate tax
- Impose 5% surcharge charity tax for “sin” products such as liquor, cigarettes etc
2. Personal Income Tax Rebate – to give tax relief for certain expenses that is directly linked to the nation building development of Malaysia undertaken directly by the people
- Rebate of up to 50% of the annual fees for private education (primary right up to university)
- Rebate of up to 100% for the annual charges for broadband services at the main home
- Rebate allocation (fixed) for support of Arts and Culture – to encourage the growth of local arts and culture
- No income tax for “professional” sportsmen and sportswomen accredited by the Govt as someone who dedicate their life efforts to the development of sports in the country and has demonstrated recognized victory on their full time sports profession with their sole income derived from sports
3. Approved Permits, Car Import Duties & Road Tax – revamp the current system of very high import duties and tiered annual road tax and create only 3 categories of cars (budget, standard and luxury) and such measures will result in government earning more income while consumers will benefit from cheaper purchase of cars
- Reduce import duties based on current format for new and imported used cars (standard and luxury) by 50% but for budget cars, reduce import duties by 80%
- Abolish the “AP Approved Permit” system and introduce a “registration tax” payable to the government upon the initial registration of cars and subsequently, a greatly reduced rate of this tax for the onward sale of the said vehicle to the next buyers. For example, if the current AP market price attached to every imported car is RM50,000 (govt gets zero income) then this proposed registration tax can be for example RM15,000 payable directly to the govt and subsequently if this same car is sold to another buyer (depending on the years after the first registration), a reduced rate of for example RM5000 (if less than 5 years) and RM2000 (if more than 5 years) can be imposed on the subsequent registration (2nd hand sale)
- Impose a one off “special luxury tax” for luxury cars (it is proposed that any car above 3000cc and original selling price of at least “X dollars” based on an international rate card can be considered as luxury (Government can decide on a list)
- To protect the national car industry, government can give direct incentives for people to buy a Proton or a Perodua such as to abolish road tax for national cars (and 100% rebate of one road tax for the non national car owned if the same household owns a national car as well), 50% insurance rate, preferred financing rates etc
- Impose a one rate annual road tax for the 3 categories of cars ie RM150, RM500 and RM1000 respectively
- Reduce basic insurance rates for cars
4. “One Malaysia” Education Loan Scheme – Govt to establish a new scholarship and education loan scheme for all Malaysians through a fund that is contributed by the private sector
- Corporations that contribute more than rmX of annual tax to the government will be given a high tax rebate for an annual endowment contribution to this proposed education loan fund and hence, current own disbursement of scholarships by some of these companies can now be centralized and professionally administered.
- If 100 qualified companies contribute an average of RM10m per annum, this fund will have RM1 billion per annum worth of education loan and scholarships for all Malaysians
- This fund will be an extension of the existing PTPTN loan scheme for local IPTA/IPTS but managed independently and professionally with focus on special courses and quality internationally recognized and accredited education
- Applicants will be selected purely based on merit (flexible age limit) and those with successful targeted university placements
- Loan scheme to offer below market interest rates with interest, part principal or full principal waivers on offer depending on results with long term vs short term payment repayment incentives
5. Green Technology Incentives – Govt to strongly encourage the adoption of green technology by both the public and private sectors by giving financial incentives for the creation of “green” projects and activities
- Establish an express grant fund for private initiatives embarking on unique “green” efforts
- Free tax period for companies embarking on green technology related efforts as a core business
- Special interest rebate offered by financial institutions (subsidized by govt) for borrowings on projects that incorporate accredited green technology inputs for direct green benefits
shaik rizal sulaiman
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