Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said Tuesday the government plans to new tax measures to help raise funds to pay off national debts that have snowballed due to corruption under the previous government.
Lim said it will take the government three years to resolve its fiscal woes due to more than 1 trillion ringgit (USD 240.5 billion) in debt and another 35 billion ringgit (USD 8.4 billion) in newly discovered unpaid tax refunds that were not disclosed by the previous government.
"Fiscal consolidation will not be achieved easily, and we must be willing to expect some pain and even offer some sacrifice. We would need 3 years to resolve the fiscal issues," Lim told an economic forum.
He didn't give details of the tax measures but said these will be announced in the 2019 federal budget that will be unveiled November 2.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told the forum the fiscal problems have turned Malaysia from an Asian tiger into a "small kitten."
"We may have to devise new taxes in order to have the money to pay our debts. Of course the other thing we can do is to sell our assets."
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