The rise in the amount of tax collection for 2018 was due to the strong economic growth in 2017 when Barisan Nasio­nal was the ruling gov­­er­nment, says MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (pic).

“Many know that the tax payable this year is from last year’s income. Most taxes paid in 2018 are largely determined by the investment environment and business performances throughout 2017,” he said.

Hence, Dr Wee said the higher tax revenue for 2018 was due to the rapid growth in 2017 when the economy was managed by the Barisan government.

“This has got nothing to do with any Pakatan Harapan strategy and it is not because of the good economic performance last year as what Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is trying to claim credit for,” he said in a statement.

He said the rakyat could see for themselves that the economy after the 14th general election was slowing down.

Yesterday, Lim announced Malay­sia’s gross direct tax collection for 2018 had increased by 11.13%.

Lim also said the tax collection performance was a result of effective tax strategies implemented by the Pakatan government.

He said that these strategies included beefing up tax enforcement activities, having more focused tax education programmes and improving the process of imposing travel restrictions on taxpayers with tax arrears.

- The Star -