KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia’s Budget 2023, scheduled to be re-tabled on Feb 24, is expected to be based on the current global and domestic state of affairs.
World Bank Group's lead economist for Malaysia, Dr Apurva Sanghi said the global and domestic economies have changed significantly from when the last budget was announced in October last year, in terms of the global and Malaysian inflationary landscape, among others.
"We will have more up-to-date analysis and policy measures because of that. This upcoming budget is also expected to continue supporting and adhere to the 12th Malaysia Plan," he told a media briefing on the World Bank’s latest Malaysia Economic Monitor report, titled ‘Expanding Malaysia’s Digital Frontier’ today.
He said the government is also expected to increase the allocation for digitalisation efforts, particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in terms of incentives.
"Even though the firms are in the recovering trend (at the moment), the SMEs are not recovering as fast (as bigger firms)," he said.
On the introduction of a new tax base system, Apurva said the need to introduce a new system has been there for the past 10 years, noting that Malaysia has, in some ways, benefited from being a commodity exporter when the prices were high.
"I believe the new government is aware of the urgency,” he said, adding that the goods and services tax (GST) is the most lenient and clean tax base system, as it mobilises revenues in the best way and GST is the way to have a clean government. - BERNAMA