KEDAH Bersatu has urged the public to oppose DAP because the latter was against the rule compelling freight forwarding firms with an International Integrated Logistics Services (IILS) license to comply with a proposed 51% Bumiputera equity requirement.
Accusing DAP of blocking “Bumiputera agenda” Kedah Bersatu information chief Khairul Anuar Ramli in a Facebook post said that as a country with the Bumiputera as its core, effort must be put into increasing the equity ownership of the Bumiputera.
“But DAP has never been comfortable with this agenda,” he said, adding that DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng’s statement on Sept 24 is clear indication that the party does not want to see Bumiputera equity ownership being increased.
“This is the DAP attitude that we must oppose. There are always so many excuses given when Bumiputera agenda is concerned.”
In an earlier statement, Lim had called the new rule “unconstitutional and unfair” to those who have built and invested in their companies based on existing conditions only for them to be abruptly changed without due recourse.
Under the existing rules, freight forwarders with custom licences registered before 1976 are exempted from any Bumiputera equity requirement.
For those registered between 1976 and 1990, it must have a 30% Bumiputera equity and those registered after 1990 must have 51% Bumiputera equity.
Those with International Integrated Logistics Services (IILS) customs licences, however, do not have any Bumiputera requirement.
However, the Finance Ministry this year said the Bumiputera equity requirement will now be applied to all licence holders, including those in IILS.
IILS is a status granted by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) to logistics companies that provide logistics services along the value chain as a single entity on a regional or global scale.
On Sept 23, the Federation of Malaysian Freight Forwarders (FMFF) said the Finance Ministry has imposed a rule for IILS licence holders to comply with a new 51% Bumiputera equity rule by year-end.
However, FMFF president Alvin Chua had said that the rule was discriminatory because foreign licence holders were exempt from the rule, and that it would be very difficult to find new partners in the current economic climate. – Sept 24, 2021
