KUALA LUMPUR – Budget 2022 will likely see more financial aid announced for the low-income group and those affected by the pandemic, while businesses can expect to enjoy further incentives as the country bids to recover from a hard-hit year.
Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said these are among the main “emerging thoughts” obtained by the ministry from a series of engagement sessions with various quarters across numerous sectors so far.
To date, he said the ministry has received more than 1,000 responses and comments pertaining to the upcoming Budget, which will be expansionary and lay the foundations for the government’s wider and longer-term reform efforts.
Speaking at the Invest Malaysia 2021: Rebuilding a Sustainable Economy event today, Tengku Zafrul outlined the six main concerns raised during the consultations that are expected to be addressed in the Budget.
The key emerging points are:
- continuing with the sustainable development goals as mapped during Budget 2021;
- financial assistance for those most impacted, especially the B40 group, unemployed and vulnerable;
- steadfast support for businesses via affordable financing schemes, better access to credit and grants, among others;
- increased focus on sustainability and improving resilience of country’s environment and water assets;
- improving labour market by, among others, focusing on hiring incentives and subsidising wages; and,
- enhancing fiscal prudence by improving the government’s procurement and debt management process, and enhancing tax enforcement measures.
Touching on the National Recovery Plan, Tengku Zafrul said the policy has helped push the country’s recovery in the wider economy, with stronger gross domestic product growth in the second quarter of this year, including a growth of 40.1% and 19.8% in April and May, respectively.
He said the plan has also ensured improvements in the labour market, with unemployment improving to 4.6% in August from 5.3% during the height of the pandemic.
Additionally, the minister said that trade activities have seen an uptick, including a 23% year-on-year increase in exports in August. Manufacturing sales value also saw an increase of 6.8% in the same month.
“Overall, the domestic economy is expected to be fully reopened by the end of this year, before resuming to pre-pandemic growth in 2022,” he said.
On the Bumiputera community, Tengku Zafrul said the country has made significant strides to uplift the group since the New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced in 1971, but said more needed to be done to ensure they become a rising economic force.
He said in the last 50 years, poverty among the Bumiputera decreased by 89% to a level below 7.2%, and that last year, 61.6% of the community were employed in skilled occupations while 73.7% of households owned a home.
Tengku Zafrul added that Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), the agency managing Amanah Saham Bumiputera funds, also witnessed resounding success from managing RM30 billion in assets in 2001 to more than RM323 billion today.
“PNB has grown more than ten-fold and owns approximately 10% of companies listed on Bursa Malaysia,” he said.
However, he said if the group is to rise further, well-intended plans like the NEP must be modernised, with new benchmarks and targets needed to be considered. – The Vibes, October 14, 2021
