KUALA LUMPUR: The government will not be able to reduce corporate tax rate from the current 24 per cent, in the next year or two, because it needs to prioritise paring down the country's RM1 trillion debt.
The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government is expected to table the 2019 Budget in Parliament on Nov 2.
"Personally, I think corporate tax should be reduced to prosper the economy, but we need to pay off the debts from 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB),” said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.
“We cannot afford to reduce the corporate tax rate for now and the next few years. We could have had good news for corporate tax in the coming 2019 Budget – but Jho Low and his gang took it away.
“I can only promise you that we will not let him go (scot-free), wherever he is," Lim said.
“We have to fulfil the country's debt obligations, particularly that of 1MDB's, inherited from the previous government," he added.
Lim was speaking to reporters after a special luncheon organised by the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industries of Malaysia (ACCCIM), here, today.
Also present is ACCCIM president Tan Sri Ter Leong Yap.