Budget 2018 – reality check for middle-class Malaysians

Spillover effect: While Budget 2018 may appear to help the middle-income group cut down on expenses and increase their disposable household income, the impact from previous years’ budgets, predominated by austerity drives, GST, and the depreciating ringgit, continues to spillover until today.

THE much anticipated Budget 2018 has come and gone, leaving behind a bag of crowd pleasers that has something for everyone. Even the middle-class segment of the population, the long “forgotten” group, has been thrown a lifeline.

Malaysians rejoiced at the welcomed developments i.e. the planned removal of tolls, greater housing benefits, allowing employers to hire maids directly and proposed extended maternity leave.