Album Of Life: October 2016

Saturday, 22 October 2016

The highlights of 2017 Budgets

Here are the highlights of the 2017 Budget proposals announced on Friday by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak:

Lower corporate tax
* Govt has proposed to reduce the corporate tax for the year of assessment 2017 and 2018

* Reduce tax rate between 1 and 4 percentage points for companies with significant increase in taxable income for year of assessment 2017 and 2018.

* Reduce tax rate from 19% to 18% for SMEs with taxable income up to first RM500,000.

* Extend double taxation promotion on operating expenditure borne by anchor companies for the Vendor Development Programme until 31 December 2020.

Amendment to Bankruptcy Act 1967

* To enable bankrupt individuals to rejoin business activities by amending the Bankruptcy Act for social guarantors and those diagnosed with chronic diseases as well as the elderly.

Infrastructure, railway projects

* New 600km East Coast Rail Line connecting Klang Valley to East Coast, costing RM55b. Conects Port Klang, ITT Gombak, Bentong, Mentakab, Kuantan, Kemaman, Kerteh, Kuala Terengganu, Kota Bharu ends in Tumpat

* RM100m to restore East Coast railway line along Gua Musang – Tumpat that was destroyed during flood.

* To increase trip frequency of ETS for JB-Padang Besar route, RM1.1b allocation to buy more train sets

Boosting investments in small, midcap companies

* Govt-linked investment companies will set aside up to RM3b to fund managers to invest in potential small and midcap firms

* Capital Market Research Institute will set up Capital Market Development Fund with initial funding of RM75m

* Stamp duty on instruments of transfer of real estate worth more than RM1m to rise from 3% to 4% from Jan 1, 2018

Broadband incentives for rakyat

* Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will provide RM1 billion to ensure the coverage and quality of broadband nationwide reaches up to 20 megabytes per second.* From January 2017, fixed line broadband service providers will offer services at a higher speed for the same price.

* A subscriber of 5 mbs per second package at RM149 will enjoy a package with twice the speed, which is 10 megabytes per second. Within the next two years, for this package, the speed will be doubled with the reduction in prices by 50%.

BR1M, subsidies

* BR1M’s assistance for 2017. Households with monthly income below RM3,000, raised to RM1,200

* For households earning RM3,000-RM4,000, the BR1M allocation increased from RM800 to RM900

* Government will provide nearly RM10b for fuel subsidies including cooking gas, toll charges, public transport

* For the purchase of reading materials, PCs, sports equipment be combined as lifestyle tax relief up to RM2,500 from 2017

Affordable housing for first time buyers

*Govt vacant lands at strategic locations will be given to GLCs and PR1MA to build 30,000 houses. The selling price RM150,000 to RM300,000.

*Govt to build 10,000 houses in urban areas for rental to eligible youths with permanent job, Rental up to 5yrs, below than market rate

* Rakyat-Centric projects will be continued through Private Finance Initiative with allocation of RM10b

Empowering taxi drivers, Uber

* Taxi drivers to get Govt grant of RM5,000 to buy new vehicles, individual taxi permits, RM60m allocation

* For ride-sharing drivers who don't own car, down payment can be made using BR1M, rebate RM4,000 to buy Proton Iriz*

Private retirement schemes

* Effective 2017, the Government proposes to introduce a one-off increase of the existing RM500 incentive to RM1,000 to PRS contributors. Minimum accumulated investment of RM1,000 during the otwo years. For this, an allocation of RM165mil will be provided.

* RM400 million will be allocated, among others for clean air and ecotourism initiatives

Source : Star online

Wednesday, 19 October 2016

Which come first ?

An interesting article to ponder , first published by Sin Chew Daily then published by FMT . Finally shared by me , We are Malaysian !

The beautiful KLCC

Politics or economy first?

By Lim Sue Goan
There are several indicators that our government’s financial quandary has reached a rather serious stage.
For instance, the Education Ministry has since August stopped giving out pocket money to poor students, and due to a lack of budget provision, some of our diplomats overseas have had to drive their own cars instead of being driven in a chauffeured car.
Thanks to insufficient allocations, the operation of some local universities have been affected and postgraduate students at some faculties are forced to give up their studies.
There are two reasons for the sorry state of the national coffers: the exorbitant government administrative and salary expenditures, and the poorer-than-expected tax revenue.
Of the total RM265 billion operating expenditures set aside for the 2016 Budget, remunerations for the country’s 1.6 million-strong civil service alone take up RM70.49 billion or 26.6 per cent of the total. Given the salary increase effective from this July, salary expenses for the coming year will only go up further.
At the same time, tax revenue has been dwindling. Other than the RM10 billion shortfall contributed by Petronas, the second quarter GST collection also slipped to RM7.2 billion, down by RM3 billion from the previous quarter, making the 2016 target of RM39 billion collection a tall order.
Due to expenditures outstripping revenue, budgetary deficit for the first half of this year stood at a staggering rate of 5.6% of the GDP, against the government’s whole year target of 3.1%.
And since the deficit far exceeded the limit during the first half of this year, it looks like the government now has to work very hard to cap the expenditures. This probably explains why poor students have been denied their allowances and public universities are short of research funds.
The six per cent GST has adversely affected consumer sentiment, and along with the government’s belt-tightening policy, the overall market sentiment has been dampened.
As such, it is imperative that Prime Minister Najib Razak, who is also Finance Minister, offer several solutions that will stimulate the economy when tabling the Budget 2017 in Parliament this Friday, in a bid to avert another catastrophe if a recession strikes.
Among the risks is the fact that massive shopping malls and office towers are still being constructed in Kuala Lumpur, and the entire financial system will be impacted if the property bubble bursts.
The government can boost the national economy from several aspects. First and foremost, trim the redundant public service sector and cut down the remuneration payouts so that the government can lower the GST and corporate tax rates to boost market sentiment and investor confidence.
Secondly, all unnecessary white elephant projects must be deferred or halted and the resources diverted to more important areas. The RM650 million Taman Tugu project, for example, should be scrapped or put on hold.
Allocations for the Prime Minister’s Department, which has soared from RM13 billion in 2012 to RM20.3 billion this year, must also be slashed. Meanwhile, education allocations should be restored to the original levels as education forms the basis of the country’s continued prosperity.
Thirdly, corruption-busting efforts must be stepped up to prevent further loss of our resources. Perhaps we can take the cue from Indonesia’s tax amnesty policy to repatriate oversea assets back to the country.
Reports show that Malaysia’s “black money” outflow is in the region of trillions of ringgit. Some US$418 billion (RM1.7 trillion) has been siphoned out of the country since 2004, US$48 billion in 2013 alone.
Corruption, capital outflow, GST and fund remittances by migrant workers have gradually dried up our market cashflow.
Political expenditure
The government must further liberalise the economy and abolish the outdated protective policies in order to attract more foreign investments and implement the economic transformation program.
That said, trimming the administrative team, opening up the economy and cutting political expenditure all require a whole lot of political courage. The primary agenda of Umno leaders today is to keep the incumbent administration continuously in power, all others being of secondary importance.
Umno seems to be self-contradictory when it comes to politics and economy.
For instance, they are well aware that protecting Proton will not augur well for the development of the country’s automotive industry. However, they (Umno) are simply unwilling to let go of the protective measures just because more than 60,000 people look to the national carmaker for a living. In the end, Umno has opted for politics over the economy.
As a matter of fact, politics and the economy are inseparable. If politics is on the right track, the economy will get a definite lift. Similarly, if the economy is in disarray, politics will also suffer, and the fundamental support base will be in tatters.
Umno is reluctant to put aside its political interests as it stubbornly sticks to the deficit target without introducing quantitative easing measures that will release more funds into the market, or implementing the necessary structural reforms.
The economic prospects will only get murkier with ordinary Malaysians taking the brunt of it.

Lim Sue Goan writes for Sin Chew Daily.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Monday, 10 October 2016

Lets go to Kemaman ...........

There are several ways to travel to Kemaman either by car , bus or flight . Nowadays it is much more convenient using the roads since the new highway ( LPT2 ) to Kemaman had been opened . Actually Kemaman is part of Terengganu district which is located at the southest part of Terengganu ( 157KM from Kuala Terengganu ) and very much near to Kuantan ( 50KM ) .

The main attractions over here is the sea , the beach resort , foods , golf course , mini zoo , turtle santuary and many others . As an Oil n Gas industry area , Kemaman also popular among professional and many come for business trip to Paka/Kerteh , which is dominated by Petronas office and factories .
There are also many hotels available from 5 star , Awana Kijal Resort , right up to budget hotel . Those who like to play golf , there 3 golf course available ie Awana Kijal , KDRP and Bukit Besi . The biggest shopping mall available is Mesra Mall , located at Kerteh/Kemasik where you can dine , shopping , watching movie and playing bowling . The popular foods are seafoods , satar , Otok-otok , keropok and stuff crabs . Even though Kemaman just a small town but you can find a lot of kopitiam shop and the famous is Hai Peng , which is located at Cukai .

The way to Kemaman :
1. By car . You can drive through the highways , LPT and LPT#2 . Took you 3 hour if you drive from and to Kuala Lumpur .
2. By public transport . Taxi or Bus . For bus , You can buy the ticket , ride or stop at Geliga Bus Station . There are several bus operator operating over here such as Sani Express , Transnasional , SP Setia and Utama Express .
3. By flight . The airport located at Kerteh . This is a small airport . The flight operator over here is Malindo Air and FireFlyz . Please note that they offer weekdays flight ONLY and fly to and fro Subang Airport ONLY .
4. By flight . The airport located at Kuantan . This is a medium size airport and has a daily flight to and fro KLIA and also Subang Airport . From here you have to travel around 80KM to Kemaman .

So guys welcome to Kemaman and hope this info can help to guide you !

At the Kerteh Domestic Airport

fly with Malindo Air

At Geliga Bus Station , Kemaman

Sani Express to Shah Alam

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Saturday, 1 October 2016

3D2N in Shah Alam and Kuala Lumpur

We start this trip 3 days before Aidil Adha . It is a short family holiday trip . The main reason is to pick up my daughter and my son from their college and university respectively to come back home .

For day #one , I had booked Concorde Hotel in Shah Alam . Its' been a long time I didn't stay at this hotel and if I'm not mistaken , it had been for past 10 years . But still a big thumb up , the hospitality of the staff still maintained and their wide spread of breakfast at the Melting pot cafe still awesome . The charge is RM48 nett per pax , is reasonable for this kind of breakfast . Also , we love the hotel facilities , the gym and the spacious swimming pool .

The hotel is very near to the Blue mosque and medium size shopping mall . We can see clearly the view of the mosque from our room . The Blue mosque is a must visit place in Shah Alam . We spends some time visiting and admiring the mosque architectural including performed our solat over there . I feel that it is good to stay at Concorde Hotel during Ramadhan where you can have opportunity to pray Terawih with this huge and comfortable mosque . By the way the name of this mosque is Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah .

At night , my family and I celebrated my daughter birthday at Polperro Steak House at section 7 . We have a decent and nice western dinner over there . There are so many guest patronage at this restaurant . The foods was delicious and the price that we paid is very reasonable . I think due to that reason , it's explained why the restaurant was full house . But what's I dislike , they allow the beggars "disturbing" the guest for the money ..... or is it a common practice in Shah Alam ?

Today ( 2 days before Aidil Adha ) my plan is to going back directly to my home town . But while driving to KL , the radio and twitter mentioned that the traffic is very bad . Its' mentioned that the delay will be almost 6 hours, right from MRR till Temerloh . So I make a decision to put another night in Kuala Lumpur . As usual , I booked my favourite hotel via Agoda.com .

That night , we stayed at Sunway Putra Hotel . I told my family to sleep early since we will check out from hotel and move early in the morning back to Kmn to avoid from the traffic . Since it is still early and no other activity , we make a decision to watch the Korean movie #Train to Busan . This movie is very good . It's wasn't just a story about people running from zombies , but also a reflection of today's society where selfishness is vigorous and humanity is a myth . It also showed that , for all victory , big or small , starts with one brave decision plus sacrifice to be made .

So folks that all my trips experienced this time . Very important for my lesson learned , please review back our scheduled if we want to travel a day before or after the big festive in Malaysia such as :

1. Aidil Fitri.
2. Aidil Adha .
3. Chinese New Year .

+++++++++++++++++++++ BYE