Budget Malaysia 2019: Everything HR and Employers Must Know

Highlights

• Minimum wage to be raised to RM1,100 from January 1, 2019 and will be streamlined nationwide
• The Government will introduce a credit system for deduction of sales tax from January 1, 2019. The credit system will also avoid double taxation and lowering business costs.
• Industry Appeals Court to be set up to speed up resolutions of employer and employee disputes.
• Imported services including online services such as digital advertising to be taxed from Jan 1, 2019.
• Levy to be imposed starting June 1, 2019 on passengers travelling to Asean countries (RM20) and to other countries (RM40)
• Public transportation users can buy RM100 monthly passes for unlimited trips on RapidKL rail and bus services from Jan 2019.
• Tax break will be given to companies that assists staff to settle their PTPTN loans by the year ending 2019.

EPF

• The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) i-SURI. Through this scheme, the Government will provide a matching grant of RM40 each month as an incentive to the husband who contributes with minimum RM5 per month to the wife’s retirement savings.
• The government will implement two programmes funded through the Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) fund namely Apprenticeship and Graduate Enhancement Programme For Employability (GENERATE).
• To encourage employment opportunities for Malaysians over the age of 60, the government proposes that employers' EPF contribution to this group be reduced from 6% to 4% from Jan 1, 2019. 

Labour

• To ensure that former prisoners are not left behind in the development as well as to contribute to economic growth, additional tax cuts given to the company which employs staff in this category.
• Proposed tax rebates for employers who employ Malaysians aged above 60, with a salary limit of RM4,000 a month.
• A rule for listed companies will be implemented for them to display information in the annual report of the ratio of the highest salary and salary median and highest salary ratio and the lowest salary.
• The Government will review the labour law to empower the labour market, for the welfare of workers and prohibit discriminatory practices by the employers.
• The government wants to help people who lose their jobs with the full system implementation of Employee Insurance Scheme beginning January 1, 2019.

Healthcare

• The Government, through a joint venture with a private insurance company, will introduce National Health Protection Fund for B40 category.
• Free coverage over 4 major critical illness up to RM8,000 and a maximum of 14 days of income replacement during hospital treatment at the rate of 50 ringgit a day or the equivalent of RM700 a year.
• Continue free screening programmes to detect breast cancer (mammogram), vaccination programmes and HPV screening pap smear testing in hospitals and government clinics with an allocation of RM20 million.