KUALA LUMPUR: Lower corporate tax, pump priming and incentive payments to the business sector are among the wishes of the business community from the upcoming Budget 2009 announcement.

This will help maintain healthy business loans growth, Alliance Bank Malaysia Bhd’s group chief executive officer Datuk Bridget Lai said yesterday.

“We expect the upcoming budget to be predominantly a ‘budget for the rakyat’ as the government attempts to alleviate the heavier burden of rising inflation,” Lai, who is also the director of Alliance Financial Group Bhd, said in a statement here yesterday.

She said more commitment to the Ninth Malaysia Plan project roll outs, in light of the RM30 billion or 15 per cent increase in the mid-year review of the five-year infrastructure spending blueprint may help to promote further business loans growth and protect the asset quality of the new business loans book.

“We may see a cut in the personal income tax rate, additional tax relief, adjusting the brackets for personal income tax, and lowering employees contribution rate to the pension fund EPF on a temporary basis, among others, to ease economic hardship among the lower and middle income groups,” she said.

If implemented, she said these measures will be positive for consumer discretionary spending, which in turn may promote sustainable consumer loans growth as well as protect the loan book quality of the banking segment.

Lai said that with the recent decline in world oil price, the government could take the opportunity to revise its petrol prices, while maintaining its stated RM0.30 per litre subsidy.

Incentives to reward efficient behaviour could also be introduced and could take the form of tax relief for NGV (Natural Gas Vehicle) installation, or a new subsidy for public transport. — Bernama