KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob (pix) has hit out at the government over what he described as a capitalist-oriented 2020 Budget that ignored the needs of lower income Malaysians.
He said that with the cost of living going up, many Malaysians had high hopes for next year’s budget, but these hopes were dashed by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng last Friday.
“We can conclude that the 2020 Budget is a capitalist budget that ignores the rural Malaysians in particular. The rich are being prioritised, and the poor not so,” he said when debating the 2020 Budget at the Dewan Rakyat today.
Ismail pointed out that among other things, the government announced that new investments in international theme park projects would be given a 100% tax exemption on statutory income.
“RM1 billion in customised packaged incentives will also be made available to attract investment from Fortune 500 and global unicorn companies. In addition, lowering the minimum price for foreigners to buy properties to RM600,000, from RM1 million, will only benefit developers,” he said.
“Sadly, there are no new big-scale policies or special initiatives to improve the lives and welfare of the needy and those in the rural areas,” he said.
Ismail said it was also disconcerting that despite predictions by analysts that there would be further global economic difficulties next year, the government failed to lay out plans to overcome this.
Ismail also expressed bemusement over “the lack of government initiatives” to improve the country’s competitiveness at the global level.
He pointed out that the most recent Global Competitiveness Index has shown that Malaysia had declined to the 27th spot as compared to previous years, and that this was way behind the government’s target of being in the top 20.
