Minister confirms freight forwarders bumi equity rule postponed to end 2022

 

PARLIAMENT | Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz has confirmed that the implementation of a bumiputera equity rule for freight forwarders involved in international services has been postponed until the end of 2022.

Zafrul told the Dewan Rakyat that this is to allow the Peneraju Agenda Bumiputra (Teraju) unit to review the policy further.

The rule was supposed to come into force at the end of this year, causing alarm among the Federation of Malaysian Freight Forwarders (FMFF).

It argued that the rule puts local international integrated logistics services (IILS) players at a disadvantage.

Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz

This is as the rule does not apply to foreign-owned companies.

FMFF argued that they did not have a problem with having bumiputera equity owners, but rather that it was difficult to find bumiputera companies that were willing to buy into their shares.

'Ali Baba' companies

Anthony Loke (Pakatan Harapan-Seremban) said today the government's push for bumiputera equity had led to the creation of "Ali Baba" companies, which on the surface are bumiputeras', but are actually owned by non-bumiputeras.

Hence, Loke said there was a need to review the policy for logistics companies to be fair to all including non-bumiputeras, in line with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob's "Malaysian Family" concept.

Bumiputera equity had recently resurfaced as a hot topic.

After 30 years of the New Economic Policy, bumiputera equity ownership is only at 17.2 percent.

This has prompted the government to push for a policy under the 12th Malaysia Plan that would allow bumiputera shares to only be sold to other bumiputeras. - Mkini