KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim questioned the justification for the government to impose additional taxes on the people if existing collected revenue is not managed prudently and continues to experience significant leakages.
Astro Awani reported that Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, said the government’s current priority is to ensure the country’s governance system is truly clean before imposing any new form of taxation.
“Why should we impose taxes when the revenue collected so far has not been spent well? Why should we assume that the revenue collected has been spent perfectly and without leakage?” he asked while speaking at the Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) Knowledge Forum here on Tuesday (Oct 21).
He stressed that moral principles and integrity must be the basis of any economic policy, including taxation, because the government cannot expect the people to bear the burden without a guarantee of transparency in national financial management.
Anwar once again reiterated that firm enforcement actions have successfully recovered a total of RM15.5bil in public funds within two years.
According to him, the amount was derived from misappropriation activities, including smuggling, syndicate operations, and government revenue leakage, which proves that leakages were widespread previously.
However, Anwar said the surprising matter is that there are still parties, including the opposition bloc, who disparage the government’s efforts to curb corruption and misappropriation.
“If we follow the debate in Parliament, there is almost no support except from government supporters, while the opposition disparages these efforts,” he stated.
The Prime Minister also questioned how the people and previous leaders could “allow this garbage to drag on for decades,” referring to the culture of leakage and abuse of power that has become endemic.
He stressed that silence and compromise regarding these old practices caused the country to incur a huge debt burden and systemic damage in fiscal management.
Anwar added that before the government considers any new taxation measures, the main priority must be to fix the administrative system and ensure that every ringgit of the people’s money is spent with full accountability.
