PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong has told Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng to not make jokes that could have a negative impact on the stock market.
“Please remember the advice from former finance minister (Tun Daim Zainuddin) that the position of a finance minister is special and the minister should not simply give speeches that could affect the (financial) market,” said the MCA president.
According to Dr Wee, the local banking stocks share prices fell sharply on Thursday (March 21).
“Most of the indices across Asian markets were up, but not the FBM KLCI. There were only two indices that fell slightly and FBM KLCI fell the most,” he said in a Facebook post on Friday (March 22).
Dr Wee's comments came after Lim reportedly floated the idea of a windfall tax on banks to get the institutions to start lending more aggressively.
The Finance Minister reportedly made the remarks at Invest Malaysia 2019.
Lim, however, later clarified his statement on Thursday and said that the government had no intention of imposing any windfall taxes on Malaysian banks.
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