PETALING JAYA: After deducting payments for housing, childcare, education and groceries, business owner Haikal Ahmad and his wife are only left with about 15% of their salaries.
“These items are my family’s biggest expenses,” said the 44-year-old.
Although Haikal’s household earns slightly above the threshold for schemes such as the Sumbangan Asas Rahmah, he said this does not mean they are financially comfortable.
Large sums of housing loans remain difficult to manage once childcare and other commitments are factored in, he added.
He called for greater tax relief for housing, childcare and healthcare costs, saying rising insurance premiums are adding to the pressure.
Jeremy Lee, 40, a senior marketing executive from Petaling Jaya, said raising the individual tax relief from RM9,000 to RM12,000 will help ease the burden on middle‑income earners.
“If the relief is increased, then our tax refunds can go up by a few hundred ringgit, which will be better since we’ve been paying more in income tax,” he said.
“The RM9,000 individual tax relief has been around for over a decade since the 2010s so an increase of this threshold will be timely to match the rise in cost of living.”
He also suggested widening the threshold for the Skim Jaminan Kredit Perumahan housing loan scheme, which is currently capped at RM500,000.
The SJKP or the Housing Credit Guarantee Scheme, is a government-backed initiative designed to help first-time homebuyers without a fixed income or conventional payslips secure a home loan.
“This can benefit home buyers looking for quality housing at RM700,000 to RM800,000 instead of low-cost,” he said.
Legal executive Emily Chandran, 26, said raising the SJKP threshold to about RM700,000 will widen her options when buying a home.
She also called for the one-off RM100 Sumbangan Asas Rahmah cash aid to be increased to RM200, saying this will help her four-member family cover essential household items.
“We tend to pool our Sara aid together so we can use this to purchase essential household items like detergent, coffee and eggs,” she said.
Extending the electricity subsidy for usage of up to 800kWh a month throughout 2027, she said, would provide further relief for M40 households.
“If the global energy crisis is going to persist beyond next year, then the government should consider extending the 800kWh electricity bill subsidy until next year,” she said.
