KUALA LUMPUR – Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak (Pekan-BN) is proposing a temporary recovery tax targeted at the wealthy for the next two years in an effort to bolster government coffers.
In his debate of the royal address today, he said Malaysia’s fiscal position is the weakest in Asia Pacific, and second worst in the world after Venezuela.
“I propose a temporary Covid-19 recovery tax package for two years. This, for example, will include a windfall tax, luxury condominiums development tax, stamp duty on transactions, inheritance tax, stock market trading tax, and higher personal income tax on high-income individuals.
“After two years, we can end this temporary tax.”
He also suggested that the government tax tech giants that have a presence in Malaysia, such as Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Google, and Facebook, which have raked in a lot of profit, but have never been taxed here.
He said this should not impact consumers, and instead be levied on the companies’ profit margin.
“This is not new. Other countries like Australia and Indonesia have demanded payment and they received it from these companies. Malaysia must do the same.”
Meanwhile, he advised Putrajaya to keep up with global trends, particularly the highly lucrative cryptocurrency market.
Najib said that Bitcoin alone is worth nearly US$1 trillion (RM4.16 trillion) and that a few countries such as Switzerland, Australia, Singapore, and South Korea have started to accept the cryptocurrency.
Even though he acknowledged that the Securities Commission has approved four platforms for cryptocurrency trading, he said this initiative must be improved.
“We must give Malaysian investors the opportunity to cooperate with international cryptocurrency trading platforms. This will encourage and make it easier to allow foreign cryptocurrency holders to bring their assets into the country as soon as possible.
“This in turn will allow us to invest in local fiscal assets. Our target should be to bring in cryptocurrency assets instead of allowing an outflow of Malaysian currency into the international market. We must be able to attract international investors.
“If we can do this, we can announce to the world that Malaysia’s back,” said Najib. – The Vibes, September 15, 2021
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