Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced today that the the reintroduction of the Sales and Services Tax (SST) will see its rate set at 10% for sales and 6% for services. It should be passed in Parliament next month. He also said that the SST was expected to bring in revenue of RM4 billion while it expects to lose RM21 billion in revenue this year after zero-rating the GST on June 1. The government would however have an additional RM14.4 billion of revenues from reintroduction of the SST, rising crude oil prices and extra dividends from government-linked companies. Besides these, Lim added that the finance ministry had identified RM10 billion worth of expenditure saving measures including downsizing and abolishing overlapping and non-urgent programmes. Here’s that article in full in FreeMalaysiaToday.com (Personally, based on all the current articles on SST and how it will be functioning, my preference is still for GST. However, I am willing to wait and see how it works for the next 12 months before writing against it)
We already know earlier that Singapore has yet to be formally informed about the HSR KL – SG’s potential cancellation by Malaysia. Here’s that article: HSR’s RM864 million expenditure by Singaporean side by Dec 2018 However we have also received confirmation from Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng that the HSR KL – SG will continue should the costs could be pushed down significantly. Here’s that earlier article: HSR KL – SG could be continued but only if … Today, we learnt from the media that Malaysia will send an official representative to Singapore to discuss the High-Speed Rail project by the end of the month. This was announced by Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali. He said, “I’m in the communication with our Singaporean counterpart. Last week, I was briefed by our Attorney-General and presented the case (to the Cabinet) on Wednesday. We will meet with my counterpart in Singapore soon and will discuss the details.” Full article in MalayMail.com here. (Seriously, let’s not delay this discussion. Singapore’s just next door and it’s best to work together since both of us are smaller countries than all the other neighbours.)
In 2014, Melaka Gateway was launched. This was an earlier article 3 years ago: Melaka Gateway and RM43 billion China investment Today, we understood from the chief executive officer and founder of Melaka Gateway Datuk Michelle Ong that they are meeting key government authorities to provide them with the latest updates. The meeting with the authorities will among others include the Transport Ministry as well as port regulator Port Klang Authority (PKA). Datuk Michelle said, “We are continuing our engagements with key stakeholders such as meeting the Chief Minister of Melaka and the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP).” She added this very important point too. “As a privately funded project, both the state and Federal government did not need to inject a single cent into the development nor provide us with any form of guarantees.” Well, here’s that full article in NST for everyone’s reading. (Yes, I continue to believe in the Melaka growth story. Well, nothing much for its airport but do drive there to understand that it has really grown a lot compared to 5 or even 10 years ago. Not everything is worth investing yeah. Please do due diligence)
Happy getting updated.
written on 16 July 2018
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