KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — The government will publish a mid-term review on Budget 2024 implementation next year in line with the recently passed Public Finance and Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2023 in the Dewan Rakyat, said Deputy Finance II Minister Steven Sim.
On BernamaTV’s special programme on Budget 2024 today, he said under the new Act, the government must table the budget performance, the government’s spending report, and the tax expenditure to the Parliament.
This means Budget 2024 implementation is being monitored internally by committees within the Finance Minister (MoF), and its performance is reported to the public and the Parliament.
Budget 2024 shows the government’s commitment to efficient spending with more money for development, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and vulnerable groups.
“At the same time, we want to spend this money with discipline; for example, we talked about targeted subsidies, money that is supposed to go to SMEs and vulnerable groups will go to them,” Sim said.
He added that Budget 2024 must be read in context with other documents and policies which have been announced recently to understand the government’s policy strategy in terms of fiscal strategy.
This includes the Madani Economy framework, the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR), the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP 2030), and the 12th Malaysia Plan Mid-Term Review (12MP-MTR).
Meanwhile, Sim said the increment of the service tax percentage from six to eight per cent, as announced in Budget 2024, will have limited consequences regarding the price of goods as it will only affect a small category of sectors.
“What we want to do is to expand the tax base but at the same time without increasing too much burden on the people,” he said.
Hence, re-introducing a wide range of consumption-based taxes like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is not a viable option at the moment as it will increase the price of goods.
“It is not yet the time because we are coming out from the pandemic and have to face slow growth in the global economy,” Sim added.
— Bernama
