Short take on Najib Budget 2016 - Sivarajan PSM

Short take on Najib Budget 2016 .

1. Increase of minimum wage welcomed as it was scheduled anyway for revision this year 2015. An increase of RM100 is very small in comparison with GST 6% and increase of CPI. RM100 does not make much a difference in the workers real wages .


2. Najib claims that

“GST collection up RM39 billion from RM27 billion in 2015. National revenue would be reduced by RM21 billion without GST.
Without added tax revenue, the government would have to borrow to pay civil servants’ salary, national credit rating would deteriorate, and borrowing cost would increase.”

Then why did they allocate up to 20 billion to Value Cap , Government investment company to buy stocks and prop up the stock market . ValueCap will invest in undervalued shares on Bursa Malaysia. (Sept,2015)

Take money from the rakyat to play stocks !

3. Seven measures to improve GST treatment with effect from Jan 1, 2016, including zero rating of controlled medicines and food items like soybean-based milk and organic-based milk for infants and children- Does that mean a price reduction of the above items from what we were charged since April, 2015 OR just omitting the GST 6% line in the bill.
Will we actually see a price reduction? I doubt so.

4. Malaysian consumers to get rebates on mobile pre-paid cards equivalent to GST amount paid, effective Jan 1, 2016 to Dec 31, 2016.- finally , after being ripped off by mobile companies since April, 2015.

5. Income tax increased from 25 percent to 26 percent for the super rich ! people earning between RM 600,000 and RM 1 million. 1% increase ! Wow! Hope all those super rich are not telling their accountants to declare their yearly remuneration below RM600K.

6. Transport and Highways - They should have allocated an amount to nationalize several Highway companies so that the rakyat will not be burdened with ever increasing tol rates . Especially all those short distance highways that the rakyat is forced to travel on a daily basis in the heart of Kuala Lumpur . SPRINT, SILK,LDP,KESAS,LEKAS, PLUS Bt Tiga,Sg.Rasa ,Grand Saga etc,.

7. Najib mentioned that the Government has agreed in principle on the TPPA, but will wait for Parliamentary debate. Wow , Najib !

What is the purpose of Parliamantary debate if you have already decided. What is the use of the CBA, Cost Benefit Analysis if government has already decided.

Even the text is not out yet for scrutiny ! Government should only make a decision after the text has been scrutinised by various stake holders and debated .

Sivarajan . SUA.PSM