Ahead of the Pakatan Harapan government's maiden budget tomorrow, BN today presented its "People's Economy Initiative" document with eight strategies that it claimed could boost the country's total revenue to RM247 billion next year.

Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin, as BN's shadow finance minister, said the additional income would be generated through the reintroduction of GST at a lower rate of three percent, as well as the introduction of several new taxes.

"If you look at the national sources of income and revenue, we estimate that we could collect RM247 billion through new income, new taxes and some re-prioritising of the national expenditure," Khairy said during a press conference in Parliament.

Among the new proposed taxes include a Capital Gains Tax for nett annual incomes of more than RM10 million; a soda tax of 25 sen per litre; remittance tax of six percent per transfer; and a carbon tax of RM10 per metric tonne for factories releasing greenhouse gases of at least 25,000 metric tonnes.

In his presentation, Khairy also tabled BN's proposals for ways to spend the additional revenue which he said was a continuation of policies from the coalition's 14th general election manifesto as well as from initiatives under its previous budgets tabled when it was the federal government.

"Official data showed RM34.75 billion flowed out of the country in 2015 after being sent out by foreign workers.

"At a six percent rate, the government can expect to collect up to RM2.09 billion in revenue through this remittance tax alone," he explained.

On return of the GST, Khairy said even with the lower rate of three percent, BN's projected collection of RM21 billion next year would match the collection from the current SST.

He also said an additional RM10 billion could be collected which otherwise would be lost due to weaknesses identified in the SST system.

Khairy expressed confidence the people could be convinced to accept new taxes such as the soda tax and carbon tax based on BN's proposal that the money collected would only be used for a specific purpose.

"I think we can convince the people to accept the tax. I believe the people will accept it," he said.

Elaborating, Khairy said BN proposed that income from soda tax be used for development of the health industry while income from a carbon tax would go towards developing the green economy.

'Assisting all segments of society'

Based on its projected revenue, Khairy earlier presented BN's plans for the people driven by three main thrusts - boosting development, improving the distribution of income and "future proofing" the economy.

Among its key ideas include the establishment of a Fair Works Commission that would do away with a national minimum wage scheme to be replaced with one based on company size, industry, sectors and location of operations.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad had previously indicated that Budget 2019 would be a challenging one for the government.

Ahead of its tabling in Parliament tomorrow, various stakeholders have also made their recommendations on new revenue sources for the government to consider.