Unlike in past years, I won’t be live-blogging the budget this afternoon. I’ll be busy doing…other things.
However, I’ll do my best to tweet about it if time permits (catch the link to my Twitter feed on the right-hand column). Nor have I forgotten about the PR Alternative Budget which was released yesterday (link here)– again, a lack of time to comment. I’m hoping I can do something about both tomorrow.
Posts
It looks like the PM was afraid to emulate Maggie Thatcher's "Big Bang"!
ReplyDeleteWitness his timid efforts to cut personal and corporate tax rates and his expansionary regime of cash handouts.
Why bring in the GST when the revenues derived therefrom will be disbursed willy nilly in the form of cash handouts?
And why is the PM apparently unwilling to grasp the subsidies nettle by the throat and institute meaningful reforms?
The unpalatable truth is that Malaysians from the aristos to the plebs have become so addicted to subsidies that politicians who try to reform the system will be turfed out of office!
It says much for the short-term mindedness of most Malaysians that they do not want to see the big picture or what the future is going to be.
has anyone thought of retirees without any family to support them? i was a professional working at an executive level in a national shipping company. i had retired since the last 10 years without any pension plan..nor a family to support. after retirement i had opened up a cafe using one third of my epf savings but it was a disastrous failure . this resulted in me having to dispose off my house and car at very much below market price.
ReplyDeleteto make things worse, my graduate -teacher wife died young of cancer at the age of 31, more than 3 yrs ago. this resulted in me having to lead an ordinary 'marhaen'/bourgeois lifestyle compared to a lower middle class lifestyle i had enjoyed previously. how long can the remnants of an epf lasted me ,if i were to live to the expected life expectancy of 72 in malaysia? i believe theres many like me unwillingly trapped in this predicament at an age (mid 60's) where we are out of mainstream of development , gainful employment and our rebouncing factor in life is at a low ebb. can u imagine the impact on our group on the continous removal of subsides for petrol, sugar and other essentials? any positive suggestions?
just my simple and humble views here. 3 criticisms of BR1M:
ReplyDeletea. Cash handouts and a cut in subsidy is a double-edged sword. A recipie for both demand pull and cost-push inflation
b. Distortion to how the economy should work. Basically a person shouldn't get 'paid' without working for it
c. Economic growth data for next year may be distorted by such handouts. The self-proclaimed GDP growth wouldn't have been there without the BR1M
Ministers in many occasions misled the public that with GST prices of goods and services will come down. Am not sure what economic sorcery is that? Am sure government will not implement it if it leads to lower source of revenue. Also while GST not hitting education and healthcare it does not change the fact that when the cost increases, so are their prices. Again which I think misleading publicity by the government
Cheers