DEAR Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, I read your key message issued during the investor’s conference in the media, on Wednesday.
In a nutshell, we need to, again, brace for tough times ahead with new taxes to pay off debts.
I suppose, we, the people have to also share the responsibility for having elected the previous government.
Having personally gone through the 1997-1998 financial crisis, I for one do not look forward to another round of trial and tribulation. I was single then, but now I have a husband and two children.
As an ordinary citizen, my concerns are many, but one concern that is shared by many Malaysian parents is the cost of private education.
The government is responsible to provide quality education for our children.
Due to the politicising of our education policies, students in our government schools have fared poorly and are behind countries like Vietnam and Singapore (a country that got its basis of education from Malaysia, prior to their independence).
So, we send our children to a private school despite the steep costs.
How will the new taxes to be planned by the Tax Reform Committee impact us and will we have sufficient funds for our children’s education?
The 2019 Budget should consider a rebate for parents who pay for private education (primary and secondary) equal to the amount that would have to be borne by the government in educating them in government schools.
It is undeniable that private school educators are rendering yeoman service that would otherwise become a huge expenditure for the government.
I hope Dr Mahathir will take this into consideration and provide the long overdue tax deductions.
The new government has already began reducing unnecessary expenditure by reviewing projects approved by the previous government.
However, there are other low-hanging fruits that can also be considered for reducing government expenditure and adding to government revenue.
Hence, I hope Dr Mahathir will be able to point us in the right direction so that our ideas to increase government revenue and reduce government expenditure will be looked into seriously.
Taxes should be fair and not a burden to the common people.
If there are still more ways to reduce government expenditure and increase revenue, we should explore those paths first before increasing taxes.
S.M. DAS
Petaling Jaya, Selangor