Budget wishlist

Addressing the issue of inequality and throwing more incentives for SMEs to invest are the common thread in the wishlist of the panellists.

Finally, what is your wishlist for Budget 2019

Gomez: My biggest concern is resolving the problem of inequality, which is a serious problem in the country. The disparity in income levels and standards of living are glaring. The budget should give some clues as to how the government would handle it. The second issue is that the budget should give more incentives to SMEs, as it is one sector that needs the support of the government for more investments.

I would also like to see measures to clean up the public sector including the GLCs and SOEs. There seems to be no political will on the part of the new government to focus on this problem. The party ruling the country is afraid that they do not have sufficient bumiputra support and fear dismantling the system. After five months, I am troubled by what I see and don’t see the real change we are expecting when we put this government in power. The clean-up of this (public service, GLCs and SOEs) sector will bring about a lot of savings that can help address the issue of inequality.

Nungsari: Inequality is a phenomenon that needs to be addressed head on. The change in government also came with expectations from the group that wants to see change because of the issue of inequality. If we look at history, if inequality goes beyond a certain point, it becomes the ingredient for not-so-nice things to happen. It needs to be addressed through fiscal and non-fiscal measures. There is a need to consolidate the budget and hopefully the cuts are on unnecessary expenditure, including cutting allocation to statutory bodies and use it to resolve inequality issues.

Secondly, I hope the whole idea of public finance changes and is looked at in a different light. It is always a spectacle on a Friday afternoon late October/November (when the budget is announced). It is not accounting where you plug in your numbers to get a 5% growth. The obsession of using the budget to talk about growth in terms of numbers should stop. They have been honest enough to revise down the numbers. I hope they emphasise on structural changes and address the short-term pains at the same time.

Thirdly, I hope the new government has the tenacity and persistence to keep the reform agenda going despite the political pushback. The New Economic Model was good but became the ETP when the political pushback came. If the government wants to reform, it has to be this year and next. After that, the runway gets shorter and it becomes more difficult to take off.

The budget should also revisit inter-governmental finances. Gone are the days when the “Big Uncle” (Federal Government) is able to support the others (the states) because the “Big Uncle” is not so rich anymore.

Lee: I hope we can go back to basics. Spending should be efficient, and done within our means. No supplementary budgets. Structural reforms can be pursued incrementally, avoiding disruptive changes to the economy, businesses and industries. I believe there will be five priority areas in Budget 2019. First, the cost of living in urban areas, which includes providing incentives for affordable housing. An average household spends most of its money on food, accommodation and transportation. The government can look at the provision of tax reliefs on rental payments and tuition fees for primary and secondary education, and subsidies for public transportation. The second area will be initiatives to spur and sustain quality private investment. The immediate priority is to set up an independent panel to do a comprehensive review of the cost of doing business, streamline regulatory practices and compliance costs to increase investment, and encourage innovation and technology advancement. The third key area will to be boost exports potential and capacity expansion.

The government can look at providing more grants for export promotion programmes, among other initiatives. I also expect to see a focus on the key sectors of tourism, agriculture, e-commerce and healthcare, and the Industrial Revolution (IR4.0). The final area will be the upskilling of the workforce and creation of jobs. The government should look to incentivise companies to increase female labour participation, provide a tax allowance for the hiring of unemployed youths and encourage the private sector to participate in training schemes for fresh graduates.