PUTRAJAYA, Oct 28 — The government will continue to provide funding for various categories of target group programmes even though they were not mentioned in the 2016 Budget, Treasury Secretary-General Tan Sri Mohd Irwan Serigar said.

Citing funding for single mothers’ programmes, he said it would continue to be disbursed through related ministries even though Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak did not raise the matter when tabling the budget.

“Even though it is not mentioned in the budget, the allocations will continue to be disbursed. It’s impossible to mention all of them in one hour and 45 minutes, not even in three hours.

“The single mother programmes have been carried out over the years. So, the notion that the Women and Community Development Ministry gets nothing (in Budget 2016) is wrong. All sort of allocations and programmes are provided for them,” he said.

Mohd Irwan said the people and the business community reacted positively to the budget as it provided incentives to all segments of the society besides attracting investments and stimulating business growth.

On the personal tax hike for the “superrich”, Mohd Irwan said the government had discussed it thoroughly, having studied its implementation in other countries where personal income tax up 40 per cent was imposed.

The budget proposed a personal tax for those with annual income of between RM600,000 and RM1 million to be raised to 26 per cent, while that of individuals earning more than RM1 million will be raised to 28 per cent.

The tax rates will be raised to 28 per cent for those with income exceeding RM1 million.

Mohd Irwan the additional revenue of RM400 from personal tax on the wealthy would be used to offset tax relief given to low- and middle income groups.

He said although the wealthy is just a small group, they benefitted from development projects in terms of construction of roads, Light Rail Transit, Mass Rapid Transit and Rapid Bus Transit projects.

“All these go to the corporate sector in terms of contract awards, banking, financing, legal agreements. They will double their income. So to pay 28 per cent personal tax will not impact that much,” he said.

Mohd Irwan said with tax relief given to households earning up between RM3,860 and RM8,320 or in the middle 40 per cent income bracket (M40), they would have more disposable income.

In presenting the 2016 Budget, Najib stated that the Budget would focus on Malaysians who make up the middle 40 per cent income bracket, who earn between RM3,860 and RM8,320.

For this bracket, the relief allocated to tax payers for every child under 18 years of age will be doubled from RM1,000 to RM2,000 in 2016.

Tax exemption for individual taxpayers whose spouses do not earn an income will also be increased from RM3,000 to RM4,000. — Bernama