GEORGE TOWN: Penang Chinese Chamber of Commerce (PCCC) concurs with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak that the 2018 Budget is “good and happy news” but wishes for a larger development expenditure.
“The Federal Government’s revenue collection is expected to record RM240bil next year.
“The total expenditure is RM280.25bil. The operating expenditure accounted for nearly 84%, leaving 16% for the development expenditure, which is RM46bil.
“This trend is a common phenomenon in the past few years. The Chamber is of the view that being a forward-looking government, the Federal Government must take a serious look at this trend,” it said in a statement yesterday.
PCCC said as a developing country, Malaysia needs to upgrade its hardware and software development.
“We should allocate a higher development expenditure. We also think that the various development and infrastructure projects are not equally distributed to all the states.
“We urge the Government to treat all the states equally and allocate the resources in a fair manner,” it said.
The Chamber added that it was happy to hear that the Government agreed to approve upgrades for Penang International Airport.
“The airport reached its capacity since a few years back as the number of tourists had been on the increase over the years.
“In the past two years, PCCC has repeatedly urged the authorities to expand the airport.
We hope that this expansion programme can be carried out immediately in time to meet Visit Malaysia Year 2020.
PCCC also thanked the Federal Government for allocating RM500mil to further expand facilities of the Penang General Hospital.
“Although there was good news regarding personal income tax, the Prime Minister did not bring good news about the corporate income tax.
“With the present uncertain market conditions and business downturn, we earnestly hope that the Government will consider reducing corporate income tax,” it said.
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