YOUTHS today are confronted with significant challenges, including rising living costs, home ownership affordability, education burdens, and limited support for entrepreneurship.
As the government prepares to table Budget 2025 on Oct 18, MCA Youth has called for the prioritisation of several key areas.
In terms of cost of living, MCA Youth has urged that the government continue to RON95 fuel subsidy for at least another year to mitigate economic pressure on youth.
“We recommend establishing a price cap mechanism to shield young people from rising fuel costs, using surplus funds from lower oil prices to support subsidies when needed,” said its secretary-general Saw Yee Fung in a statement on Thursday (Oct 17).
“As for home ownership, the government should expand first-time homebuyer incentives to support home ownership among youths.
“MCA Youth advocates for expanding incentives for first-time homebuyers. This includes promoting a ‘rent-to-own’ scheme and offering lower loan interest rates to ease financial strain for young homebuyers.”
For education, Saw went on to propose increasing the education assistance grant from RM150 to RM200 and providing a 20% discount for those who fully repay their National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN) loans, saying the increase would alleviate student loan pressure.
“Additionally, we recommend interest rebates to encourage early repayment and incentives for companies that hire interns,” she added.
Meanwhile, Saw called for Putrajaya to strengthen university incubator programmes to promote youth entrepreneurship, saying the funds to support such programmes can help young entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into viable businesses.
“We also propose re-establishing the Malaysian SME Expansion Centre or similar organisations to offer consulting services to youth,” she added.
“In relation to infrastructure and the environment, MCA Youth also emphasises the need for accelerating green transformation and improving transportation. We also recommend including ‘Park & Ride’ facilities in new town plans and reviewing the legality of electric scooters for safety.
“The construction of the East Coast Expressway Phase 3 and the expansion of EV charging stations should also be expedited.”
As for tax reforms, MCA Youth said it advocates for tax reforms that reduce financial burdens on young people.
“This includes separating contributions for life insurance and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for different tax exemptions, raising the tax exemption cap for Private Retirement Schemes from RM3,000 to RM5,000, and increasing tax benefits for marriage and parenting to support young families,” Saw said. – Oct 17, 2024
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