Raise individual tax relief to RM12,000, says Wee

KUALA LUMPUR: To help Malaysians cope with rising inflation, Putrajaya should consider raising the automatic individual tax relief from RM9,000 to RM12,000, says Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong.

He said the current RM9,000 for individual relief in tax returns was not a realistic sum as it had not been revised for more than 10 years.

“A personal rebate of RM12,000 is equivalent to RM1,000 per month,” said Dr Wee, who is the Ayer Hitam MP, during the debate on Budget 2023 at the Dewan Rakyat here yesterday.

Dr Wee, who is MCA president, also suggested gradually increasing the proposed RM12,000 individual relief to RM15,000 in three years.

“This will help Malaysians, particularly the B40 and M40, who are affected by inflation,” he added.

He said this would be the sort of government commitment that the people needed and hoped for.

Dr Wee also suggested that the RM2,000 special relief for each unmarried child who is still attending school to be increased to between RM3,000 and RM4,000.

For children who are pursuing their studies at universities, Dr Wee said the rebate should be increased from RM8,000 to RM10,000 each.

“These two steps are more effective in helping the M40, particularly those affected by the rising inflation,” he added.

Dr Wee commended the government for allocating RM1bil in Budget 2023 to provide RM500 to each of the two million Employees Provident Fund (EPF) aged 40 to 54 who have less than RM10,000 in their Account 1.

He said he was concerned that there were two million people in this age group who had less than RM10,000 in their EPF.

“This means that there are two million active contributors with savings of less than RM10,000 after decades of contributions,” he added.

Dr Wee said the government must accurately identify “target groups” in its plans to give the RM500 EPF contribution.

“This data should be looked into again so that the target groups will benefit,” he said.

“In addition, the RM500 contribution should not include inactive EPF members, as they may no longer reside in Malaysia or they may be a permanent resident, who should not be accepting the contribution.”