Published: Sunday February 17, 2013 MYT 6:08:00 PM

Income tax to be cut further?

By CHERYL HEW

IPOH: The government is looking into lowering tax in line with its economic model of high income and low taxation, said Second Finance Minister Datuk Seri Ahmah Husni Hanadzlah.

"Since we discovered that the people are earning more day after day, we might lower tax rates to reflect this.

"The initiative taken during the tabling of the Budget 2013 where a few groups were exempted from the income tax show that we are heading towards that direction," he said during a press conference here Sunday.

Ahmad Husni said that the government was pursuing the high income and low taxation model since it related to the happiness index introduced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

"We have conducted research into other countries in the world that use economic models such as high income and high taxation, low income and high taxation.

"Based on that, it was decided that the best model for the happiness index would be the high income, low taxation one," he said. Ahmad Husni said there were other methods of increasing the country's revenue even if income tax was lowered.

"The performance of the Inland Revenue Board and Customs Department is steadily increasing through higher efficiency in tax collection, meaning higher revenue for the government.

"The current Economic Transformation Plan (ETP) also means that companies are raking in higher corporate revenues and individual income is rising as shown by record growth since 2010.

"When the ETP reaches a peak where we can see high income from both sides, we can then look into increasing taxes, though our current focus would be the reduction of taxes," he said.

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