Philosophy Politics Economics |
- Forum: Economic Vision for Malaysia
- Cheaper Cars: Fantasy or Reality?
- GST - The Lazy Cure for Deficits
| Forum: Economic Vision for Malaysia Posted: 14 Oct 2012 08:09 PM PDT THE Chevening Alumni of Malaysia will be hosting a public forum on "Vision for Economic Development for Malaysia" on October 17. They are:
Details of the forum are as follows: Date: Wednesday, October 17Admission is free! Please register with info@cheveningalumni.org.my with your name and contact details if you would like to attend the forum. See you there! ;-)  |
| Cheaper Cars: Fantasy or Reality? Posted: 13 Oct 2012 08:14 AM PDT BN, Pakatan spar over car prices Nigel Aw 11:55AM Oct 11, 2012 The issue of cheaper cars heated up yesterday as the topic dominated a budget forum between Barisan Nasional's Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan and Pakatan Rakyat's Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua. Pua (left), who began by comparing Pakatan's shadow budget with the federal budget, pointed out that the former focussed on increasing disposable income rather than providing one-off assistance. "Most households have a median income of between RM1,500 to RM2,500 only. We looked at what is their largest monthly expenses and it was paying for car loan. Just a Myvi may cost RM600 to RM700 a month. "If we reduce excise tax by 20 percent - we start with 20 percent first or the second-hand car industry may collapse - households can save RM70 to RM100 a month, that's a saving of RM1,000 per year," he told the forum in Shah Alam last night. Adding on, Pua said the second highest expense was for housing loan, and on top of building more affordable housing, Pakatan will go a step further than BN by also breaking up the monopoly in the cement and steel sectors to make building materials cheaper. 'Contradiction of the highest degree' However, Abdul Rahman accused Pakatan of taking on the issue in "silo" by failing to consider the myriad of issues that would also be impacted from the reduction of car prices. "If you close a hole here then another hole will open up there. For example, you have not explained how you are going to solve the petrol subsidy problem when cars flood Klang Valley (and consume more petrol). "I am also not confident that reducing excise duty will help reduce car prices... If excise duty goes down, cars like Honda may still maintain their prices because there is demand in Malaysia," he said. He added that even though car prices in Malaysia were more costly, other related expenses such as petrol, insurance and road tax were still among the relatively cheap. Abdul Rahman (right) also blasted Pakatan for wanting to make Kuala Lumpur a liveable city but concurrently would allow large number of vehicles to flood the city with cheaper cars. "This is a contradiction of the highest degree," he said. Responding to this, Pua pointed out that the car to population ratio had already exceeded one to one. "Even if we make cars cheaper, there would be no marked increase because a person can only drive one car at a time, no one can drive two at a time and the maximum number of cars are already on the road," he said. Improve public transportation first He added that Pakatan planned to increase the number of buses in Klang Valley by the thousands to compliment the MRT system that is being constructed. Abdul Rahman rebutted the argument that car numbers would not significantly increase, stating that this was merely an assumption. "There are many people using buses and LRT, this means many people in Klang Valley still do not have a vehicle," he said. To this, Pua replied that the public would still opt for public transport even if they have their own vehicles to get to work and a car was mostly for family leisure. "It is not that anyone who starts work wants to buy a car, some people buy a car because they have no choice, or else they cannot go to work," he said. He added that only after people have a real choice between public and private transport, after the former is adequately improved, considerations could be made to slash petrol subsidies. Another panellist at the forum was Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) chief executive officer Wan Saiful Wan Jan and the session was moderated by Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) lecturer Maszlee Malik.  |
| GST - The Lazy Cure for Deficits Posted: 30 Sep 2012 07:29 PM PDT GST a ploy to hide economic ills, says Pakatan By Lee Wei Lian September 27, 2012 KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — Putrajaya's desire to implement the goods and services tax (GST) in the future is an easy way get more money and divert attention away from economic problems such as inefficiency and corruption, says Pakatan Rakyat (PR) While the Barisan Nasional (BN) government is not expected to introduce the GST till after the general election, Minister in Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Idris Jala was quoted in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that he expects the proposed GST to help boost state revenue and help put an end to the federal budget deficit by 2020. [...] DAP publicity secretary Tony Pua said that while GST was supposed to broaden the tax base as only an estimated 10 per cent of Malaysians currently pay income tax, the question that needed to be asked was why were so many Malaysians earning so little as to fall below the taxable threshold. He said that even if 10 per cent out of the people who are not currently paying tax are tax dodgers, GST still would not make sense as it meant that many more low-income Malaysians would be burdened. "If they can't earn enough, why should they be burdened with additional taxes," he said. "People's incomes have not increased significantly." Pua also said that there was little risk of a sense of entitlement developing among those who do not currently pay income tax. He also questioned what the government would do with extra income earned from GST. Pua said BN should look at cutting expenditure, getting value for money, open tenders and abolishing corruption as ways to save money rather than imposing more taxes. "Has the government exhausted all the means?" he asked. "If they have not there is no need to impose new taxes." He said that getting more funds from taxes will not solve the problem of the deficit if leakages are not plugged. The DAP lawmaker also warned that once GST was in place, rises in the tax were almost inevitable. He said that GST was a "lazy" approach to solving the country's revenue issues and PR's approach was to cut wasteful expenditure and leakages as well as increase revenue through non-tax avenues. Pua wanted to know what the government would do with extra income earned from GST. These include land sales through open bidding and increased revenues from government-linked companies (GLCs). "We believe we can balance the federal budget without GST," he said. Malaysia has been running a budget deficit since 1998 and stated its intention to implement GST several times since approving the law in 2009 but has always postponed the new tax, which has some 3,000 exemptions. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said in September last year that GST would be introduced "probably after the next general election." For the full story on The Malaysian Insider, click here.  |
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