Continuation of projects will benefit construction industry

PETALING JAYA: The Master Builders Association Malaysia (MBAM) welcomes the government’s decision to continue various infrastructure projects, which will benefit the construction industry.
“The continuation of well spread out projects will benefit the construction industry and the rakyat. This will also ensure the sustainability of the industry. Furthermore, by taxing professional imported services, the government is also encouraging the use of local resources,” said its president Foo Chek Lee.
These projects include LRT3, MRT2, affordable housing, rural housing, upgrading of roads, upgrading of government officers’ quarters, schools, masjid, surau and police stations.
However, the infrastructure spending means that the construction industry would require enough manpower to complete the projects on time and within budget.
“The government announced levy for foreign workers in the agriculture sector is reduced to RM3,500 from RM10,000 and we hope the government will also apply this rate to the construction industry.
“We also fully support the government’s two-tier system and hope that the levy can be reduced for the skilled workers to further improve construction productivity,” said Foo. He said the matching grants under TVET would also help the construction industry.
While MBAM supports the government’s aim to reduce dependency on foreign workers, Foo said that there should be a realistic understanding that the construction industry needs workers to fill in the demand-supply gap for manpower.
“As such, MBAM hopes that the policy with regards to the employment of foreign workers can be looked at in a holistic manner so that the aspiration of both the public and the private sector can be satisfied and the cost of doing business reduced,” he added.
Foo said in the construction industry, it is a norm to have variations and to carry them out but it is impossible to determine the full details until a project’s final accounts have been finalised one to two years after the defect liability.
“The other uncertainty is for those facing the difficulty to account on their final account but contractors are required by the government to settle the GST (Goods and Services Tax) fee before end of this year,” he said.
MBAM wants the government to consider allowing a two years’ grace period for contractors to settle the full GST fees.
“We hope that the government would implement a workable solution for the construction industry to ease the cash flow burden and clarify the uncertainties faced by MBAM members,” said Foo.