KINIBIZ The goods and services tax will see the government rake in RM19.4 billion in revenue by the end of this year, thus boosting ability for social welfare.
"In the long term, we would be abl to allocate more resources for infrastructure and people development, and improve our social safety nets," Performance and Management Delivery Unit (Pemandu) CEO Idris Jala said.
"With rising efficiency of tax collection, we have seen government revenue rise in the last five years since 2010.
"In 2014, we expect to record RM225.1 billion in revenue, compared to RM213.4 billion in 2013."
He said this in the 2014 Economic Transformation Programme annual report published by Pemandu, a unit under the Prime Minister's Deparment, launched today.
Idris (right) said the government has made significant strides in trimming expenditure on subsidies, first removing sugar subsidies in October 2013.
"Last October, the government announced the implementation of the managed float pricing mechanism for RON95 and diesel fuel, reducing government expenditure by RM11 billion for 2015," he said.
Moreover, he said the government is committed to reducing its fiscal deficit and for the last four years has been steadfast in meeting its target deficit amount, from 6.7 percent in 2009 to 3.5 percent in 2014.
Reacting to dropping oil prices, Malaysia’s deficit target for 2015 was revised upwards from 3 percent to 3.2 percent, with expectations to be deficit neutral by 2020 still intact.
"With crude oil prices spiraling far below predictions from US$100 per barrel (when Budget 2015 was being planned) to below US$60 per barrel in late November due to a global supply glut, we were one of the first few countries to review our budget to factor in the impact of this volatility.
"Reforms and measures taken to strengthen our economy in the last five years since the launch of the National Transformation Programme have enabled us to be swift and agile in our reactions to ripples from outside," Idris remarked.
For the full story go to KiniBiz .
