Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng said Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim would be making a mistake by failing to implement six measures he had proposed to the premier.
In a Facebook post today, he said the measures - which were raised during a meeting on July 20 at Anwar’s office - are needed to alleviate pressures faced by micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and the public amid difficult economic conditions following rising fuel prices and price cuts by foreign competitors.
“This is crucial for the survival of 1.1 million MSMEs, who play a key role by contributing 38 percent of Malaysia’s GDP, which is to be raised to 40 percent by 2030; create 48 percent of jobs and nearly 13 percent of export volume,” he said.
The six measures proposed by Lim include raising the threshold for mandating businesses to implement e-invoicing from RM1 million in annual revenue to RM5 million, and establishing a special taxpayers’ tribunal for individual taxpayers and MSMEs.
He also urged expanding migrant worker recruitment, comprehensively digitising its processing through online transactions, and abolishing the requirement for employers to pay two percent EPF contributions for foreign migrant workers.
On financing, he urged a one-year moratorium on MSMEs paying interest on their existing loans and an additional RM5 billion allocation in interest-free loans and collateral-free financing for 100,000 MSMEs, capped at RM50,000 per business.
Lim argued that the cost of these six measures would largely be borne by the banking industry, which already saw a 13.5 percent increase in pre-tax profits from RM48.3 billion in 2024 to RM54.8 billion in 2025.
“No industry or sector in Malaysia has recorded such high profits.
“The banking industry should lend a hand to their MSME customers who have provided such lucrative profits,” he said.
Proposals ‘rejected’
According to Lim’s post, Anwar’s private secretary Johan Mahmood Merican responded to Lim in a letter dated July 23, which also referred to an earlier letter from Lim dated April 8.
Johan purportedly reaffirmed the government’s commitment to the MSME sector and outlined several measures already taken by the government, such as providing RM5 billion in financing guarantees under Syarikat Jaminan Pembiayaan Perniagaan and postponing implementation of Phase 4 of the e-invoicing implementation.
He said the government will study Lim’s proposal comprehensively, but Lim framed the reply as a “rejection” of his proposal. - Mkini
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