2025 budget wishlist: Hope for policy support in various sectors to promote industry recovery.
📝[Reporter] Huang Xiaoxian @Xiiao xiann
📰【Read the full article】2025 Budget to Focus on Southeast Asia!
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Retail consumption is closely related to the people's livelihood economy. Both the people and businesses are looking forward to the 2025 fiscal budget, hoping that the government can introduce more policies to help the public cope with challenges.
Continuing the reform theme of last year, the government should continue to adopt a "increase revenue and reduce expenditure" strategy, broaden the tax base or implement targeted subsidies, and reduce the fiscal deficit.
Rationalizing the subsidy for RON95 gasoline is imperative, with major businesses offering suggestions and hoping that the government will establish clear guidelines before implementing new policies to reduce the transitional pain.
■ Medical Care Field
Malaysian Medical Association: Driving Healthcare System Reform
The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) calls for an increase in overall healthcare allocation in the fiscal budget to promote healthcare system improvement and reform, including setting up a special Khas C position for specialized doctors who have long stayed at UD56 level, to retain talent and reduce resignations.
Association President Datuk Dr KMuhandas suggests that the government raise the weekend on-call allowance for medical personnel from the current RM9.15 per hour to RM25; while the specialist doctors' allowance to be raised from RM10.40 per hour to RM30.
At the same time, the association also proposes an increase in digital funding support for the public healthcare system, or incentivizing healthy lifestyles through a sugar tax.
Top Glove: Reduce rubber glove export tax
$TOPGLOV (7113.MY)$ Believes that companies cannot afford policies without a comprehensive solution, and suggests that the government should consult widely and involve relevant departments before implementing new policies to avoid empty talk.
Although the company has no comments on the new policies that may be introduced in the budget, it believes that the government is committed to improving the economic environment. Therefore, the new policies may be more favorable for business development and help achieve the goal of increasing national revenue.
The company hopes that the budget can restart the consumption tax and reduce the 'heavy burden' of rubber glove export tax, proposing to halve the tax rate to 0.1% to alleviate export pressure.
Medical beauty industry hopes for tax exemptions.
$DCHCARE (0283.MY)$ Director and Manager Zhang Zisheng pointed out that if new medical care policies are introduced, it may undermine consumer confidence in the current economic situation and impact the demand for medical beauty services.
Therefore, he hopes the government can introduce measures to support the medical beauty industry, such as tax exemptions.
He stated that the 2025 budget has a significant impact on the medical care sector, especially the beauty and health sub-markets. Policies supporting sustainable growth and innovation will help enhance the industry's development and make medical aesthetics services more widespread.
■ Beer Sector
Stop raising beer taxes
$HEIM (3255.MY)$ Managing Director Andrew Woon called for law enforcement agencies to strengthen supervision, especially as illegal trade in alcoholic beverages may become more rampant after the introduction of structural reform measures.
He mentioned that although strengthening law enforcement has effectively recovered lost government tax revenue, raising beer consumption tax would further widen the price gap between legal and illegal beers.
Therefore, he hopes the government will not increase the consumption tax, considering that Malaysia's beer tax is already one of the highest globally.
He also hopes the budget will include green tax incentives to encourage companies actively responding to eco-friendly concepts.
Implementing new policies in stages.
$CARLSBG (2836.MY)$ Director and Manager Greg Greeley hopes that the government will implement policies in stages.
The rationalization of RON95 subsidies and a 2% increase in Sales and Service Tax (SST) will impact purchasing power. Companies need time to adjust pricing and cost management to address the impact on profitability and consumers.
He also hopes that the government will maintain any tax policies for the beer industry, as any increase in taxes will lead to an increase in smuggling activities, increased demand for contraband beer, and pose risks to the public.
In addition to promoting incentives for green energy, he also hopes the government can provide subsidies for investing in energy-saving technology or implement tax offsets.
■ Poultry Industry
Lowering the threshold for technology upgrades.
$RHONEMA (5278.MY)$ Director Lin Wanqiang hopes that the government can provide incentive measures for businesses, such as tax reductions or exemptions, to help offset the impact of rising labor costs.
He also mentioned that the rising oil prices have impacted businesses, therefore, he hopes the government will introduce subsidy policies specifically for businesses.
In addition, while encouraging businesses to upgrade their technology, the government should reduce the adoption threshold by providing subsidies or low-interest loans to support enterprises in adopting energy-saving technologies or optimizing process flow to reduce costs and enhance overall efficiency.
■ Furniture Sector
Regulating the cheap imported furniture market.
$HEVEA (5095.MY)$ Director Xiong Haojun mentioned that the artificial board industry has not fully recovered post-pandemic, leading to orders flowing to neighboring countries. Coupled with large subsidies in the overseas biomass market, local manufacturers face even more scarcity of raw materials, exacerbating supply chain disruptions.
He hopes that the government can introduce tax reductions or energy subsidies policies to help the industry cope with soaring costs, and formulate policies to stabilize the supply chain and localize resources, in order to restore the competitiveness of the furniture industry.
He also calls on the government to regulate the import of cheap products, create a fair competitive environment; at the same time, reduce or eliminate the 2 Malaysian Ringgit per square meter board export tax imposed by the Malaysian Timber Industry Board (MTIB) to enhance the export competitiveness of local producers.
■ Logistics Field
Improving digital infrastructure
$POS (4634.MY)$ Charles Brewer, Group CEO, expressed that the biggest challenge currently is the increasing management of traditional costs and related expenses of fulfilling the Universal Service Obligation (USO), while also facing the pressure of structural transformation in the digital economy.
He hopes that the government can prioritize improving digital infrastructure and provide incentive measures to support manpower and labor force development.
"We hope the government can provide subsidies to support the transformation and upgrading of enterprises."
He also hopes that the government will introduce more awards for green logistics, continuously improve infrastructure, and increase support for digital upgrades.
Malaysia Airlines: Aviation sector needs transitional support.
Malaysia Airlines believes that rationalizing targeted subsidies and promoting e-invoicing may have short-term impacts on the company, but in the long run, it is still beneficial for industry development.
Gradually phasing out subsidies may increase operating costs, especially in ground handling and fuel, while implementing the e-invoicing system will take time for the company to adapt.
Therefore, the group believes that the aviation sector needs transitional support. Rationalizing subsidies will have a cascading effect on other expenses and raw materials, hence phased financial assistance is helpful in alleviating the cost pressure of implementing new policies.
Therefore, Malaysia Airlines hopes that the government will introduce subsidies for integrating e-invoicing, skill training rewards, and innovation incentives in the budget to help the company transition.
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Source: Nanyang Siang Pau
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