COMMENT | Tax the rich more to improve healthcare, education

COMMENT | Budget 2025 has been tabled in Parliament. It happens to be the biggest budget ever in the history of Malaysia, but that isn’t surprising.

The biggest budget in the history of Malaysia is always the latest budget. I don’t think there has ever been a time when the latest budget did not top the last budget.

But I may be wrong. You can check Kini News Lab to be sure because their excellent data journalism leaves no stone unturned!

The budget is also said to be a budget for the people. Again, when has there ever been a budget that was not claimed to be for the people?

Anyway, there are a few things in the budget that I feel contradict the fact that it is supposed to be a budget for the people. Let’s see if I can identify and explain it to everyone. Then, we’ll see if everyone agrees with me or not.

Firstly, the new budget has determined that the T15 group of Malaysians will have to pay extra for public healthcare. Since they are considered high-income earners, they can afford to pay more.

This is also the same for education. This same T15 group will have to pay more for their children who are in elite boarding schools like Mara Junior Science Colleges (MRSM) and fully residential schools (SBP).

I understand that from the government’s point of view, this is basically taxing the rich and not the poor. However, I feel that the better method would be to actually tax the rich in the form of actual income taxes instead.

That would mean the whole T15 will have to contribute instead of only those who need healthcare. Also, wouldn’t the T15 be more likely to choose private healthcare rather than public?

It’s the same with education. Maybe the better solution would be to limit the T15 from attending these elite schools because these schools were really designed to give aid to the underprivileged.

However, even better, there would be no elite schools at all because shouldn’t all schools be elite so that every layer of society everywhere in the country can have the same opportunities when it comes to education?

Taxes generally fund our education system and if everyone is paying income taxes, with the T15 paying more, then all schools can benefit and all schools can be elite schools.

The T15 have options

Raising costs for the T15 instead of taxing them properly doesn’t make sense because although they can afford it, they also have other options and then whatever they spend might not go where it is intended anyway.

If the money is obtained through income tax, then it would come from across the T15 board rather than just from those who are seeking healthcare treatment. It would mean more money for the government to allocate for public healthcare and that would mean better healthcare for everyone equally.

It is the same for education. If all T15 were taxed, then all that money could be pushed to education and improve all schools around the country to be elite schools.

I guess what I am trying to say is that the T15 segment of society has options when it comes to healthcare and education.

If you make them pay more for public healthcare or public elite schools, it is easy for them to just turn to private healthcare or private education - which currently is what happens for the majority of the T15 anyway.

That is even worse because their money does not go back into the public healthcare and school systems.

The national budget can still be a budget for the people if taxes are focused on the high-income groups.

It is just that the higher income groups subsidise society to create fairness and equality.

But I guess this is a way for the government to make sure that they can sort of appease everyone.

I do understand that the income tax structure in Malaysia already has different percentages for different income brackets. But if the idea is for the T15 to pay more, then make it across the board whether they require medical treatment at that point or not.

Pay for future healthcare

Personally, I would rather be paying a slightly higher income tax every year and rest assured that I will get free or affordable health care in the future.

This would be much better than suddenly having to dish out money if I ever get sick because, let’s face it, most Malaysians would spend whatever extra disposable income they have rather than save it for a rainy day.

So by contributing to higher income tax, we are already gradually paying for our healthcare if and when we do need it. We can consider it like paying for insurance premiums. Then, it wouldn’t be a lump sum payment which we would have to worry about on top of being sick.

Also, what would be the reasoning for the more progressive scope of the sales and services tax (SST)? For the tax to be imposed on imported premium goods is something that affects every single person in Malaysia, whether they are high-income earners or not.

The government’s reasoning for this is that revenue from this would be used to increase support for low-income households.

But then why not just implement a higher income tax on the T15 as I have mentioned earlier?

So what do you think about this? I would like to make a call for all readers here to contribute their thoughts, ideas, opinions, and constructive comments. Please share so that we can all take on the burden of thinking about the best solution.

According to government spokesperson and Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has taken note of all views and concerns regarding the budget. Maybe he will take note of ours here too.

ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist, and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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