Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Tax cuts in the second stimulus package?

It would appear that the government may include some tax cuts for corporates and individuals in the second stimulus package.

The intention is, obviously, to leave more money in the pockets of individuals in an effort to stimulate consumption and, therefore, aggregate demand. This blog has advocated tax cuts here.

As for the corporates, any tax cut enables retained profits to be ploughed back for re-investment which, if done, is hoped to contribute to aggregate investment in an effective manner.

Further reduction in employee EPF contributions
It also appears that another policy to lower EPF contributions by employees will form part of the second stimulus package. I'm not sure about this. But, as with the previous EPF cut, so long as employees have the choice to decide whether to accept lower EPF contribution I will not take serious issue with it.

Having said that, I would encourage employees to reject lower EPF contributions. This is your retirement nest egg, people.

RM10 billion estimated
The size of the package is said to be about RM10 billion just as many of us have guessed. The super-sizing may come later if the first and second stimulus does not kick in the counter-cyclical effect.

Read the Edge Daily report on this here.

I would imagine that the little birdie that informed the media must have flown out from the MOF to prepare the public via some kite-flying exercise.

Let's wait for more specifics.

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