KUALA LUMPUR: Following are some of the highlights of Budget 2020 ‘Driving Growth And Equitable Outcomes Towards Shared Prosperity’ tabled in Dewan Rakyat by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.
The four thrusts;
- 1. Driving Economic Growth in the New Economy and Digital Era
- 2. Investing in Malaysians; Levelling Up Human Capital
- 3. Creating a United, Inclusive and Equitable Society
- 4. Revitalisation of Public Institutions and Finances
HIGHLIGHTS
- Government does not intend to bring back GST.
- Government to offer a one-time RM30 digital stimulus to qualified Malaysians aged 18 and above with annual income less than RM100,000 to boost use of e-wallets.
- Government proposes to increase fishermen allowance from RM200 to RM250 per month in 2020, with a total allocation of RM152 million.
- Government to continue to allocate 50 percent of tourism tax to respective state governments to support their efforts in conjunction with Visit Malaysia 2020.
- Graduate@Work programme to hire graduates who have been unemployed for more than 12 months. The graduates who secure work will receive a wage incentive of RM500 per month, for a duration of two years.
- Women@Work programme to create 33,000 job opportunities per year for women aged 30-50 years old who have stopped working for a year or more. Wage incentive for returning women workers is RM500 per month for two years.
- Wage incentive for Malaysians hired to replace foreign workers under the Local@Work programme is either at RM350 or RM500 per month, depending on the sectors, for two years.
- To ease the financial burden of parents who enrol their children in registered nurseries and kindergartens, individual tax relief for fees paid to be increased from RM1,000 to RM2,000.
- Government to review the Employment Act 1955 in order to increase maternity leave from 60 days to 90 days effective 2021.
- Government to review the Employment Act 1955 in order to extend the eligibility to overtime from those earning less RM2,000 to those earning less than RM4,000 per month.
- Government allocates RM20 million to Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) to grow local champions in creating digital content.
- Government will provide 50 percent matching grants of up to RM5,000 per small-and-medium enterprise (SME) for the digitalisation of their operations such as electronic point of sale systems.
- Government allocates RM550 million to provide Smart Automation matching grants to 1,000 manufacturing and 1,000 services companies to automate their business processes.
- RM200 million funds specifically for women entrepreneurs, offering loans up to RM1 million per SME.
- Government allocates RM100 million for small business loans under the Chinese SMEs Financing Programme via Bank Simpanan Nasional and RM20 million under Tekun Nasional’s Indian Community Entrepreneur Development Scheme, both at an interest rate of four percent.
- Government to lower threshold on high rise property prices in urban areas for foreign ownership to RM600,000 from RM1 million.
- Government will extend the Youth Housing Scheme administered by Bank Simpanan Nasional from Jan 1, 2020 to Dec 31, 2021.
- The Real Property Gains Tax treatment by revising the base year for asset acquisition at Jan 1, 2013 for assets acquired before Jan 1, 2013 compared with the previous base year of Jan 1, 2000.
- Government proposes to introduce a new band for taxable income in excess of RM2 million, to be taxed at 30 percent, which is a two percentage point increase from the current rate of 28 percent.
- Government to lower threshold on high rise property prices in urban areas for foreign ownership to RM600,000 from RM1 million.
- The 2020 Budget will allocate a total expenditure of RM297 billion, excluding RM2 billion reserved for contingencies, compared with RM277.5 billion in 2019.
- The 2020 Budget comprises operating expenditure of RM241 billion and development expenditure of RM56 billion.
- Government expects to collect RM244.5 billion in revenue in 2020, an increase of RM11.2 billion from 2019, after excluding the one-off Petronas dividend of RM30 billion.
- Digital Service Tax will be implemented starting Jan 1, 2020.
- The government reopened registration for Grade 1 (G1) Bumiputera contractors beginning Sept 1 to participate in government procurement and they get to bid for government jobs worth RM1.3 billion. – Bernama
