TAXES

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on July 03, 2015

1. One of the greatest achievements of Malaysia is in the collection of taxes. Malaysians willingly pay taxes. They fear legal action being taken against them. They fear more the raids on their businesses and residences by the income tax authorities. I know this because I was raided when I was expelled from the party and was working as a medical practitioner.

2. They got hold of my cheque stubs and nothing I said would convince them that the money in my account was not all mine. In the end I had to pay more than twice what they claimed I had not declared.

3. The income tax people are always on the lookout for people who live beyond their means. They would raid these people and would force them to pay additional tax should they feel that the culprit had not paid up fully on their wealth.

4. But of late we see some selectivity in the focus of the income tax people.

5. For example the step son of the Prime Minister is reported to have spent hundreds of millions of USD or Ringgit buying luxury residences in London, New York and Hollywood. He also expended many millions to finance the production of the film “The Wolf of Wall Street”.

6. When the Prime Minister’s Office claimed it was inherited money the brothers of Najib protested. Their father was not rich and did not leave hundreds of millions of Ringgit to the family. Even Najib had to admit that Tun Razak did not have such money to leave to his family. So where did this money come from?

7. It was claimed that the money was from business. If he made so much money from business he would have paid income tax. Has the income tax people investigated him regarding his business profits. How much tax had he paid. It is a secret of course. But I hope it is not a cover-up.

8. Then there is Jho Low. He bought a bank for 260 million US dollars. Where did he get the money. Is it borrowed? Did he sell the bank and paid taxes on the profit.

9. He also bought luxury flats in New York and Hollywood. Where did the hundreds of millions he paid for all these come from? Has he paid tax on them?

10. I believe executives of 1MDB and its subsidiaries are paid high salaries. Have they paid taxes on their earnings?

11. I understand that the Prime Minister as adviser to 1MDB is not paid anything. He is paid the Prime Minister’s salary, which I know is far smaller than what business executives get. But the Government pays allowances, the electricity and water bills, transportation, home, etc. So the salary can all be saved and spent.

12. But still the lavish lifestyle must cost a packet. It must be more than what I saved after 29 years in the Government.

13. It is a secret of course. But I just want to ask, has the income tax people investigated the source of the money and the tax paid.

14. We talk about equality before the law. In this country even the rulers are subject to certain laws. It is the essence of justice. We must be equal before the laws and we must be seen to be equal. Everyone who should be investigated by Government agencies must be investigated. There should be no discrimination.

COMPETITION IS GOOD

As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on July 02, 2015

1. Competition is good, says the CEO of the Malaysin Automotive Institute (The Edge Malaysia, June 22, 2015). It will benefit consumers and allow local industry players to explore export market.

2. It is therefore good that the Malaysian automotive industry should compete with cars imported from Japan, Korea, China and Germany. Incidentally these countries impose conditions and standards which prevent Malaysian cars from being imported into their countries to compete. So the consumers in Japan, Germany, Korea and China cannot enjoy the benefits of competition like their Malaysian counterparts

3. Some of us may have noticed that in sports for example competition is between people of the same category by age or in football by division. In golf handicaps are given so that the competition would be fair.

4. It is always the same in all competitions. We compare apple to apple and not apple to oranges.

5. Apparently in Malaysia some people may not have noticed it. They have not noticed that the Malaysian industrial capacity is not at the same level as Japan, Korea, China or Germany. We may win in a Quran competition but not, I think, in the automotive field. We do well in badminton and squash but not in football.

6. However if competing is what we have to do to benefit the consumers, we will do it. After all there are more consumers than people in the automotive industry.

7. If we lose we may have to close down. A hundred thousand or so workers, engineers and managers will lose their jobs. Their families will suffer. But that is alright because the consumers will get better cars at lower prices from foreign countries.

8. Of course a lot of Malaysia’s money would flow out to the rich countries and their workers will get higher incomes. But it is Government policy to support imports and we have to accept it.

9. So let us compete and let our consumers enjoy the benefit. The people who lose their job would not be able to consume. But that is a small price to pay.