Help us bring in foreign IT talent, says SME chief

 

An SME association says digitalisation will be essential for the post-pandemic era.

PETALING JAYA: Better access to loans and a lower tax rate are among the measures that SME business leaders hope to see in the 2022 federal budget to be tabled on Oct 29.

Apart from calling for soft loans or allowing businesses to turn their current loans into term loans to allow for a longer repayment period, Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia president Michael Kang said that human capital in the IT sector was sorely needed.

Stating that the country needs more IT talent to transform the SME sector, Kang hoped that the government would lend a helping hand as there is a limited pool of such talent in Malaysia.

“SMEs need help in digitalisation. That’s the new norm in doing business now, especially as we move into the endemic stage,” he said.

“We hope the government will encourage SMEs to get talent from overseas. The cost for this is very high and most SMEs would not be able to employ foreign talent, but bringing them in would help us transform SMEs.”

He also suggested a wage subsidy programme for foreign IT talent, who would then be able train Malaysians and help with skills transfer.

Another small-business coalition, meanwhile, has called for assistance from the government to help reboot businesses as it said most SMEs have “exhausted” their cash reserves.

The Business Survival Group’s pro-tem president Abdul Malik Abdullah also said he hoped to see banks loosen lending requirements.

He also called for the government to allow all business owners, whether private limited companies or enterprises, to submit a simplified letter of undertaking of no profit as opposed to financial reports and company documentation for 2020 and 2021 as it would free up “thousands of ringgit” in compliance fees.

The Small and Medium Enterprises Association’s chairman William Ng mooted a halt to mass tax audit operations for suspected tax evasion from 2019 to 2023 to allow the SMEs a reprieve to turn around in 2022 and 2023.

“If the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) wishes to crack down on tax evasion, this can be done when the economy has sufficiently recovered,” he proposed.

In a statement, he also suggested that personal income tax for 2021 should be exempted for those with a gross income below RM80,000 in order to stimulate spending among the M40 group.

He also proposed that sales and service tax be set at a flat rate of 4% to stimulate consumer demand, and company tax cut to 15% for the first RM500,000 of taxable income for 2021 and 2022.

“This would encourage re-investment and promote entrepreneurship to quickly fill the void left by collapsed SMEs,” he said.

Among the other items on his wishlist included extending the RM600 wage subsidy until June for all sectors deemed non-essential, and a waiver on the Human Resources Development Fund levy until June, and then a reduction of the levy to 0.5% until June 2023. - FMT