Giant, multinational companies urged to help with TVET funding
21 Mar 2023
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today called on giant and multinational companies to help cover the funding of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the country.
By doing so, he said, they would directly help the people through acquisition, maintenance and training.
“We call on these companies to help TVET because TVET trains our young people, Malays and Bumiputeras, to improve their skills to enable them to get better jobs with higher wages or salaries, ” he said during Minister’s Question Time in the Dewan Rakyat today.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man (PN-Kubang Kerian) who wanted to know if there were other large companies that contribute their profits to the people.
According to the Prime Minister, the companies include Sunway Berhad, Berjaya Corporation Berhad, companies registered with the Associated Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Malaysia (ACCCIM), Telekom Malaysia (TM) and the Albukhary Group of Companies which specifically offered to take over TVET in Pekan. Pahang and Tanjung Malim, Perak.
To a supplementary question from Cha Kee Chin (PH-Rasah) regarding taxes should be used to help the poor, Anwar said the current government was adopting a different approach by getting large companies to channel financial aid directly to the target group, instead of donating to political parties or individuals.
“As for (corporate figure) Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, I asked him to donate directly to the padi farmers…involving RM60 million, which is 30 percent of profit recorded over 20 years,” he added.
In response to Cha’s original question on an allegation that Bagan Member of Parliament Lim Guan Eng, during his tenure as Minister of Finance from May 2018 until February 2020, cancelled the tax exemption for Albukhary Foundation, Anwar said the allegation was untrue.
“The fact is that the approval for the tax exemption to Albukhary Foundation and the Albukhary Group was only made on February 25, 2021,” he said.
Anwar said according to Section 44(6) of the Income Tax Act 1967 (Act 53), giving tax relief is not the power of the minister or the prime minister, rather it is the absolute power of the Director General of the Inland Revenue Board.
Source: Bernama
