PETALING JAYA: Reviving the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and supporting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are on the Budget 2025 wish list for the business community.

But they also hope for incentives to help people cope with the rising cost of living.

Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Malaysia treasurer-general Datuk Kong Lin Loong said B40 and M40 households should be given more tax relief to increase the cost of living cushion.

“This can be done by increasing the personal tax relief from the current RM9,000 to RM12,000.

“The last revision was done 14 years ago in 2010,” he said in an interview.

He said that parental care tax relief, which was provided between 2016 and 2020, should be reintroduced and a ceiling of Rs 2,500 each for both father and mother should be set.

On e-invoicing, Kong said the government should consider making participation voluntary for businesses with annual turnover or revenue of RM500,000 and below when the system is fully implemented on July 1, 2025.

“Recently an exemption was announced for companies with a turnover of RM150,000 and below.

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“However, this limit should be raised to RM500,000 and implemented on a voluntary basis first before gradually making it mandatory,” he advised.

Regarding the proposed carbon tax, Kong said Budget 2025 should provide clear guidelines and a timeline for the progressive introduction of the new tax system.

It should also include clear guidelines on tax deductions for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) related expenditure.

Malay Chamber of Commerce Malaysia president Noorshahrin Hamidun called for more access to financing for Bumiputera SMEs.

“More than 90% of Mara’s funds are earmarked for education. Funds should be used for business financing to promote growth.

“A dedicated RM1bil for entrepreneurship financing will be a strategic move,” he said when contacted.

Nursihrin said the proposed merger of SME banks with big banks has created unhappiness among the Malay and Bumiputera economic communities who are looking for concrete policies to address their socio-economic challenges.

“This merger is not of strategic interest to SMEs and should be reconsidered,” he added.

SME Association of Malaysia president Chen Chee Siong said he hoped Budget 2025 would include provisions to support SMEs as many still face financial challenges since the Covid-19 pandemic. is

“I believe the government will present a tight budget for 2025 due to limited revenue.

“Nevertheless, SMEs should be given some support as many of them are not in good shape despite seeing positive economic data for the second quarter of this year,” he said.

Chen suggested that the government restore GST to boost its coffers and allow it to better plan annual budgets aimed at boosting the economy.

On assistance to SMEs, he said the Market Development Grant (MDG) should be increased for companies to promote their products abroad at trade shows or exhibitions.

He said the RM300,000 MDG amount was set several years ago and since then most companies have used it.

“The MDG should be increased to RM500,000 because there are companies that want to participate in trade fairs and exhibitions but exhausted their MDG years ago.

“The MDG will help these companies remain globally competitive while also helping to boost the country’s exports,” he added.

He also said that the federal budget should make special allocations to help educate and train SMEs on ESG, so that they can be prepared to deal with carbon tax and ESG-related issues.

Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Navas Ragawan said more money should be allocated for the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) digitization grant.

“Currently, RM100mil has been earmarked for this purpose with matching grants of up to RM5,000 provided to companies.

“This means that only 20,000 MSMEs or 2% of the estimated 1.2 million MSMEs can benefit from this.

“The allocation for digitization grants should be increased by RM500 million,” he said.

Although micro-businesses with an annual turnover of less than RM300,000 make up about 70% of the business ecosystem, they have stagnated, Nivas said, calling for policies to be put in place for their growth.

He said the automation grant should be increased from the current RM100mil to at least RM1bil if companies want to gradually end their reliance on foreign workers.

Nivas also suggested revitalization of GST to help increase government exchequer while improving tax efficiency.

Instead of the previous 6% GST rate, he said a rate of 3% could be implemented to provide stable and predictable revenue for essential public services and infrastructure development.