KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim says taxation is necessary but should never be done overboard to the point that it burdens the people and the business community.
Anwar said this “sound principle” will be adopted when formulating changes in the upcoming 2024 budget.
“It is our intention to ensure that both foreign and domestic investors would see it as an opportunity to enter the business enterprise that would reward them,” he said when opening the National Tax Conference 2023 today.
Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said excessive taxation would be futile if governance issues were not addressed.
“(There are) too many leakages. We spend RM22 billion for the people but we have leakages of around RM5 billion to RM6 billion … (it is money) all gone haywire,” he said.
‘We can approve contracts whether they are for flood mitigation or (the) Jana Wibawa (programme), and yet such funds have been siphoned off. Now, this has to stop and it must stop now.”
In February, deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said RM5.7 billion worth of Jana Wibawa projects had been temporarily halted pending a review to determine if they followed Treasury procedures.
During the tabling of Budget 2023, Anwar had said the government would re-tender six flood mitigation projects by June, adding that RM2 billion could be saved from the initial RM15 billion allocation.
Today, he stressed that he and his administration would not tolerate those who disregard the rule of law, regardless of their social or political status.
“As I’ve said earlier, whether you are a minister, Tun or Tan Sri, you must respect the law, or we will have to go after you,” he said. - FMT
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