KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 ― DAP’s Lim Guan Eng today said that the 51 per cent Bumiputera equity requirement for freight forwarding companies cannot be applied retrospectively.
The Bagan MP was responding to a recent news report on the issue, and said the matter had been raised previously and was rejected during his tenure as finance minister.
“It is unfair to those who have built and invested in the companies based on existing conditions only for them to be abruptly changed without due recourse.
“A failure to ensure this will discourage investors and Malaysia will lose out in competitiveness to other countries,” he said in a statement.
He also said the proposal was unconstitutional and unfair for the freight forwarding companies whose owners had suffered losses from the proposed ownership rule.
He added that the government is liable to compensate the companies for the losses suffered by the businesses.
Earlier today, news portal Free Malaysia Today reported a freight forwarders association demanding the government clarify the 51 per cent Bumiputera equity proposal before the end of the year.
Federation of Malaysian Freight Forwarders president Alvin Chua was quoted saying that the requirement was announced by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak back in 2018 and was said to be reviewed last year, but there had been no announcement since.
The association then suggested the deadline be deferred to the end of next year.
