Deputy Finance II Minister Steven Sim. —ZHAFARAN NASIB/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: The government will publish a mid-term review on Budget 2024 implementation next year in line with the recently passed Public Finance and Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) 2023 in the Dewan Rakyat, said Deputy Finance II Minister Steven Sim.
He said on BernamaTV's special programme on Budget 2024 today that under the new act, the government is required to table the budget performance, government's spending report as well as tax expenditure to the Parliament.
This means Budget 2024 implementation is being monitored internally by committees within the Finance Minister (MoF), and its performance reported to the public and also the Parliament.
Sim said Budget 2024 shows the government's commitment to embark on efficient spending with more money for development, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the vulnerable group.
"At the same time, we want to spend this money with discipline, for example, we talked about targeted subsidies; money that are supposed to go to SMEs and vulnerable group will go to them," he said.
Sim also highlighted that Budget 2024 must be read in context with other documents and policies that have been announced recently to understand the government's policy strategy in terms of fiscal strategy.
This includes the Economy Madani framework; the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR); the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP 2030) and the 12th Malaysia Plan Mid-Term Review (12MP-MTR).
Meanwhile, Sim noted that the increment of the service tax percentage from six to eight per cent as announced in Budget 2024 will have limited consequences in terms of the price of goods as it will only affect a small category of sectors.
"What we want to do is to expand the tax base but at the same time without increasing too much burden on the people,” he said.
Hence, re-introducing a wide range consumption-based tax such as the goods and services tax (GST) is not a viable option at the moment as it will definitely increase the price of goods, he said.
"It is not yet the time because we are coming out from the pandemic and have to face slow growth in the global economy," he added. - Bernama
