Budget 2023 announced last Friday included several incentives for battery EVs, including one year extension of excise duty exemption for imported (CBU) battery EVs, a RM 3 billion fund to support green technology, as well as corporate income tax exemption for local manufacturers of EVSE (EV chargers).
BMW Group Malaysia’s Managing Director Hans de Visser was quick to praise the outgoing government’s efforts to promote EVs, issuing his own commentary on the same evening Budget 2023 was tabled.
He described Budget 2023 as “This is exactly how we at the BMW Group envision Malaysia, driving our year forward with NEXTGen Malaysia back in January and throughout the year – with the vision to transform and futureproof the Malaysian automotive landscape.”
“As such, we welcome the newly announced allocations in Budget 2023 that underpin the government’s commitment to our shared vision of Electrification and Sustainability,” he added.
Perhaps he spoke too soon.
Yesterday, the King reluctantly consented to the dissolution of the Parliament. His Royal Highness expressed his disappointment with the state of the country’s political situation but had to consent to the dissolution of Parliament anyway so that the mandate to choose the government would be returned to the people.
The dissolution of the Parliament means that there will be no Cabinet to pass the proposals put forward at Friday’s tabling of Budget 2023.
Everything mentioned in Budget 2023 is a farce.
Once election is over, the new government will have to go through the entire process of tabling a new Budget 2023 all over again. The new government is not bounded by the Budget tabled by the previous government.
We are now in the middle of October and the general election will have to commence within 60 days of the Parliament’s resolution. The timeline also suggests that Malaysia will start 2023 without a Budget.
This sort of flip-flopping, lack of continuity in policies is what irks investors and is also why many companies are moving their money away from Malaysia to Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, even Vietnam.
Thailand makes for an interesting comparison because Thailand’s political situation is not any better than ours. Thailand sees a change in government as often as Malaysia, but the difference is that the Thai civil service maintains a very high level of independence from the ruling government, so investors are confident that announcements made earlier will continue to be followed through regardless of who the Prime Minister is.
Also read:
Budget 2023: Import and excise duty exemption for CBU EVs extended for one more year, until 2024
Budget 2023: RM 3b fund for green tech including EVs, RM 330m to develop infrastructure
Comments