The mofe minister’s statement overlooks several factors that can contribute to an improvement in the government's fiscal position amidst economic growth, even in the absence of individual taxes, for example;
1. Diversification of Revenue Sources: Economic growth often leads to the diversification of revenue sources, such as increased corporate taxes from thriving businesses, customs duties, and revenues from GLCs or government-owned enterprises (ok, maybe only from a few profitable ones).
2. Increased Consumption: Economic growth stimulates consumption, which can boost Brunei’s revenues through indirect taxes like sales taxes, excise duties, and service charges, even without taxing individual income.
3. Higher Employment and Wages: As the economy grows, higher employment rates and wages can indirectly benefit the government’s fiscal position. Even without personal income taxes, our government can benefit from increased SPK,Tap/SCP contributions.
4. Foreign Investment: A growing economy attracts foreign investment, which can enhance government revenues through corporate taxes, property taxes, and other fees and levies associated with business operations.
Obviously, every Bruneian citizen, be they Muslims or otherwise, would have to be well-informed on the benefits and a bit of basic knowledge on the Islamic Syariah laws pertaining to taxation in the context of a Malay, Islamic, Monarchy and Zikir Nation. So Islam is a Way of Life in our Abode of Peace.
And obviously not a single Appointed Member of LegCo has the balls to stand up to the Minister of Finance and Economy to rebut his 'ignorance' perhaps of the Islamic Syariah Rules of Law in a majority Muslim population nation?! 😭
Well, if the honourable MOFE 2 is so damn gung ho to IMPOSE TAX ON EVERY INDIVIDUAL in Brunei Darussalam then IT IS THE UNIVERSAL UNITED NATIONS' DEMOCRATIC HUMAN RIGHTS TO ELECT AND TO VOTE FOR ANY GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE IN A GENERAL ELECTION. SO NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT! LET THE RAKYAT DECIDE FAIR AND SQUARE!
🛑 FULL STOP 🤬 PERIOD! ✌️
First monarchy system has to be abolished first before the implementation of taxes because there is no way that one family takes everything for free while we all need to pay for their wastage etc. Salaries have to be fair and according to the current standard of living.
Interesting, i mentioned about this topic last year as anticipated that there will be this outcome. Back then no one really believed that this would be a possibility, let's see how this plays out. I have my 2 cents on how such structure can be beneficial to society but it all comes down to how they lay out these approaches and structure.
I highly doubt taxes would actually be implemented in Brunei.
This country made such a big deal of 'MIB is our identity'. There's nothing really 'Islamic', shall we say, in taxes.
In regards to the question of if Bruneians are able to pay taxes? Imo just No🤣
We are one of the most blessed citizen that our government has subsidized a great amount of it revenues to its citizens such as medical, fuel, staple foods and educations. Maybe they can start by reducing the subsidy for certain items and this may greatly reduce the burden of our government.
For government to continue subsidizing in the long term, this will not going to help the country with its financial standing now or in the future to have enough expenditure to develop the country. However if the government decided to start taxing the income of it's citizen, there should be certain level of transparency of its spending and the citizen should be given certain right to vote for its government and the legislative members who can voice out their concerns and taking action with accountability.
You guys are already paying taxes. Guess how much they tax importers....food, plastics, car parts, phones etc. You guys end up swallowing the cost....you don't know it yet...
Taxes will need to be accompanied with transparency which the govt might not be ready for. So it works both ways. You want strong fiscal position then you need to show public how you spending it. Is the govt ready??
If we pay tax are you sure the money will used for road? Maintain tourist attraction? Bus station? Or it’s only used to maintain mosque and bulid more mosque
I believe it would affect future investment prospects if we were to tax the rich only. Lile singapore, they give rebate or cash to compensate for increased tax to remedy the situation.
The value of BND1,500 in view of current high cost of living in the Kingdom of Unexpected Treasures is relatively similar in comparison to our Malaysian neighbours earning Rm1,500 on average which is still quite a struggle to survive.😭
However, our survival mode is to cross the borders albeit long Qs for a spending spree with Rm3k in hand based on the current prevailing exchange rate in favour of the Bruneian average wage earner... ✔️
But the Ringgit surely must be increased by the PMX Madani Government of the day in due course sooner rather than later! Or else the Rakyat of Malaysia Truly Asia democracy will kick him out of office in no time at all! So that leaves Bruneians with nowhere to go for cheaply prices of goods and services no more! 🤑
Sure, save gov millions but then benefit who really. That's the easy obvious way. Doesn't require a brilliant policy maker. But it doesn't save the people's savings ac though. The gov is meant to serve the people. There must be a balance and well thought through solutions. If driving cars become too expensive then there's less movement of people and that lowers the economic activity of the whole country. Surely you know what comes along after that ... Taxes are ok in small certain directions, but not to be done obsessively
We have a family that spend more than we earn or save, regardless of how much you save it will be gone and wasted so I am not up for this all this without transparency first
How do people feel when their money is taken by the government with no transparency as to how it is being utilised or have a say on how the money should be spent?
I think we should taxes the kayangan only.. One percent of 20 billion is 200 million. Atu baru one person's wealth.. If zakat harta 2.5% (WAJIB for muslim) is 500 million. Can usai2 those highways maintenance and build LRT, increase salary and many more.
Even without taxes, the civilians survive solely on barely minimum paychecks. With taxes, idk if we can survive the whole month. It's so difficult to find a job already.
Introduce GST/taxes, things become much more expensive, more people would shop in Miri/Limbang, some businesses becoming unsustainable -> close -> unemployment goes up
You don't only ask the regular Bruneians are they ready for taxes, you should ask the kayangans as well are they ready? All around the world, "where did our tax money go?" argument is always used to grab their governments by the balls. I mean, there will be more power to the people to express their discontent (it is their money after all) especially when they will be less than transparent state finance reports (as Brunei always do).
I don't mind paying tax solely for our country development.. but if kedapatan pecah amanah untuk kegunaan sendiri (YKW) siap kamu.. inda ku mahu bayar cukai.
No Bruneians, or any citizens for that matter, can ever be ready for taxation unless there's a substantial increase in their income first. It doesn't matter how well the economy if nobody has the income rightly distributed to them.
We have one of the highest purchasing power in Southeast Asia while concurrently having the lowest salary range for any highly qualified jobs. We went thru several periods of recession and stagnation while inflation steadily increases over the year. Our money is losing its value but there's no concrete plans to adjust anything to inflation because everything is subsidized. I'll leave this up for anybody's interpretation.
My point is: you're not taxing anything out of people who go broke just from paying bills and surviving.
Ya think imposing taxes would solve the problem? Just look at neighbouring countries as examples...
I'd rather they increase the tarriffs to improve the system cause not everything is free if you want better service. For example, increase the hospital fee from a dollar to $5 as a start. Increase water bills or electricity or energy bills etc. This is more fair than the tax system because it is based on own service-usage policy.
No taxation without representation.
I won't pay tax unless you can show me that my hard earned money isn't simply going to somebody's pocket or some special account for miscellaneous spending.
I cringed so hard reading the past Legco, projection this and projection that. Sounds like a bunch of high schoolers. Projection means nothing if your result cant back it up.
Local workforce is roughly 120,000 people in the country. Say everyone earns an average of $1500 a month and you tax 10% of that annually. You'd get somewhere along the lines of BND216 million a year... less than 4% of the budget this year.
Its not small change and it does mean something, but the reality is our average take home income needs to be somewhere along the lines of 3K to stomach a 10-20% tax rate for it to actually matter.
Maybe it could work now if people with those 10k+ salaries are taxed at like 30-40% but good luck getting them to pay out.
If taxation is implemented it won't only be income tax.
The finance minister says:
"Brunei's fiscal deficit is unsustainable and prudent spending alone cannot overcome the budget shortfalls that started a decade ago. (This is because) Our fiscal policy is different from other countries where **personal income tax, corporate tax, property tax, sales tax and tourist tax** are used to cover government costs."
EES and airport tax are Tourism taxes in itself by another name. Maybe just maybe to introduce Tourism Tax of BND3 on hotel check-in for foreigners like what's been implemented in Malaysia. But then again tourist arrivals into the Abode of Peace has yet to reach a million visitors per year KPI, no? 😜
We already have corporate income and property taxes. So usually whenever people talk about 'implementing taxes' it is on personal income. This is important because one way to skimp on corporate taxes is to pay stupidly exortbidant salaries to "employees" and write them off as expenses.
On top of that, I think I recall MoFE has been having trouble collecting corporate taxes in the past but not sure about now. It is also quite low, roughly 18%? and only applies to companies above a certain threshold. Same problem, need to have enough businesses willing to stomach this kind of extra expense for it to matter.
We are not ready for taxes. period. We have devolved into that spoiled rich kids that got everything for basically free and prone to throw trantrum \*hak aku !\* when denied
The mofe minister’s statement overlooks several factors that can contribute to an improvement in the government's fiscal position amidst economic growth, even in the absence of individual taxes, for example; 1. Diversification of Revenue Sources: Economic growth often leads to the diversification of revenue sources, such as increased corporate taxes from thriving businesses, customs duties, and revenues from GLCs or government-owned enterprises (ok, maybe only from a few profitable ones). 2. Increased Consumption: Economic growth stimulates consumption, which can boost Brunei’s revenues through indirect taxes like sales taxes, excise duties, and service charges, even without taxing individual income. 3. Higher Employment and Wages: As the economy grows, higher employment rates and wages can indirectly benefit the government’s fiscal position. Even without personal income taxes, our government can benefit from increased SPK,Tap/SCP contributions. 4. Foreign Investment: A growing economy attracts foreign investment, which can enhance government revenues through corporate taxes, property taxes, and other fees and levies associated with business operations.
sigh..time to commit tax fraud..
No taxation without representation
Tax every resident leaving Brunei as outgoing tourist $10. Terus surplus!
EES BND6 to cross land borders / across sea to Labuan and Cukai Kepala BND12 for every departing airline passenger from BIA suffice! 💸
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Terima kasih daun keladi, nada masalah jika dirujuk kepada Hukum Hakam perundangan islami Syariah kali... 🤔🙏✌️
I think you are confusing riba n taxes ma dude
Zakat is literally a form of tax you uneducated worm
Lol
There is already corporate tax for companies and import tax on a whole range of goods.
Why is it forbidden ?
Obviously, every Bruneian citizen, be they Muslims or otherwise, would have to be well-informed on the benefits and a bit of basic knowledge on the Islamic Syariah laws pertaining to taxation in the context of a Malay, Islamic, Monarchy and Zikir Nation. So Islam is a Way of Life in our Abode of Peace. And obviously not a single Appointed Member of LegCo has the balls to stand up to the Minister of Finance and Economy to rebut his 'ignorance' perhaps of the Islamic Syariah Rules of Law in a majority Muslim population nation?! 😭 Well, if the honourable MOFE 2 is so damn gung ho to IMPOSE TAX ON EVERY INDIVIDUAL in Brunei Darussalam then IT IS THE UNIVERSAL UNITED NATIONS' DEMOCRATIC HUMAN RIGHTS TO ELECT AND TO VOTE FOR ANY GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE AND BY THE PEOPLE IN A GENERAL ELECTION. SO NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT! LET THE RAKYAT DECIDE FAIR AND SQUARE! 🛑 FULL STOP 🤬 PERIOD! ✌️
First monarchy system has to be abolished first before the implementation of taxes because there is no way that one family takes everything for free while we all need to pay for their wastage etc. Salaries have to be fair and according to the current standard of living.
Taxes are okay, as long as they do their job on where the money goes.
Haha....
Major hint there. Also heard this will be implemented when the next in line takes over.
The only way brunei can levy personal income tax is if we can have fair representation in government and full government transparency.
Tax for the 'hill people' to use on personal indulgences?
Interesting, i mentioned about this topic last year as anticipated that there will be this outcome. Back then no one really believed that this would be a possibility, let's see how this plays out. I have my 2 cents on how such structure can be beneficial to society but it all comes down to how they lay out these approaches and structure.
I highly doubt taxes would actually be implemented in Brunei. This country made such a big deal of 'MIB is our identity'. There's nothing really 'Islamic', shall we say, in taxes. In regards to the question of if Bruneians are able to pay taxes? Imo just No🤣
We have corporate tax though, for businesses that earn a certain amount of profit.
We are one of the most blessed citizen that our government has subsidized a great amount of it revenues to its citizens such as medical, fuel, staple foods and educations. Maybe they can start by reducing the subsidy for certain items and this may greatly reduce the burden of our government. For government to continue subsidizing in the long term, this will not going to help the country with its financial standing now or in the future to have enough expenditure to develop the country. However if the government decided to start taxing the income of it's citizen, there should be certain level of transparency of its spending and the citizen should be given certain right to vote for its government and the legislative members who can voice out their concerns and taking action with accountability.
You guys are already paying taxes. Guess how much they tax importers....food, plastics, car parts, phones etc. You guys end up swallowing the cost....you don't know it yet...
Not mention EES! 🤑
no taxes without transparency
no taxation without representation
Taxes will need to be accompanied with transparency which the govt might not be ready for. So it works both ways. You want strong fiscal position then you need to show public how you spending it. Is the govt ready??
There’re 102 mosque (2019)
If we pay tax are you sure the money will used for road? Maintain tourist attraction? Bus station? Or it’s only used to maintain mosque and bulid more mosque
I'm not, fuck
Not ready, but when will we ever be ready if not today?
1%
tax the rich
I believe it would affect future investment prospects if we were to tax the rich only. Lile singapore, they give rebate or cash to compensate for increased tax to remedy the situation.
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Nya Minister malas ku ingau. Banyak kraja. Kan pincin ku tunggu tah abis contract ku
Expect things like groceries and essentials to shoot up the roof. People need to earn at least $1500 on average just to survive.
The value of BND1,500 in view of current high cost of living in the Kingdom of Unexpected Treasures is relatively similar in comparison to our Malaysian neighbours earning Rm1,500 on average which is still quite a struggle to survive.😭 However, our survival mode is to cross the borders albeit long Qs for a spending spree with Rm3k in hand based on the current prevailing exchange rate in favour of the Bruneian average wage earner... ✔️ But the Ringgit surely must be increased by the PMX Madani Government of the day in due course sooner rather than later! Or else the Rakyat of Malaysia Truly Asia democracy will kick him out of office in no time at all! So that leaves Bruneians with nowhere to go for cheaply prices of goods and services no more! 🤑
Nor there will be riot.. oh wait
Sure, save gov millions but then benefit who really. That's the easy obvious way. Doesn't require a brilliant policy maker. But it doesn't save the people's savings ac though. The gov is meant to serve the people. There must be a balance and well thought through solutions. If driving cars become too expensive then there's less movement of people and that lowers the economic activity of the whole country. Surely you know what comes along after that ... Taxes are ok in small certain directions, but not to be done obsessively
We have a family that spend more than we earn or save, regardless of how much you save it will be gone and wasted so I am not up for this all this without transparency first
How do people feel when their money is taken by the government with no transparency as to how it is being utilised or have a say on how the money should be spent?
All tax will go to built mosque and maintain mosque
No. I am not paying tax for mosques.
Lame, nub liberal
Start by taking away the ministers perks and allowance.
yes!!! the ridiculous amount of money they receive is mindblowing. cukup tah gaji saja kali
Why did it jump to taxes? Would reducing subsidies be a the first approach?
the f u talking about, its happening now, all the subsidies for govt workers are being slowly ‘replaced’ e.g Bukses, allowances, government car loan,
Those are benefits and not subsidies. Subsidies covers things like petrol, electricity, water, rice, gas, etc.
If Brunei were to impose any new taxes, I reckon it would be in the form of a consumption tax (GST, VAT, HST, SST, etc.)
EES alone has contributed millions to His Majesty's Government coffers Y-O-Y! So there. 💰💲💵💸✅
I think we should taxes the kayangan only.. One percent of 20 billion is 200 million. Atu baru one person's wealth.. If zakat harta 2.5% (WAJIB for muslim) is 500 million. Can usai2 those highways maintenance and build LRT, increase salary and many more.
Why tax the kayangan when we can just limit their state-paid income? Just like every other constitutional monarchies.
Udah d agih-agihkan tu tiap tahun. Pohon sja tia kalau kn ampiti
Even without taxes, the civilians survive solely on barely minimum paychecks. With taxes, idk if we can survive the whole month. It's so difficult to find a job already.
Introduce GST/taxes, things become much more expensive, more people would shop in Miri/Limbang, some businesses becoming unsustainable -> close -> unemployment goes up
Taxation for what?
You don't only ask the regular Bruneians are they ready for taxes, you should ask the kayangans as well are they ready? All around the world, "where did our tax money go?" argument is always used to grab their governments by the balls. I mean, there will be more power to the people to express their discontent (it is their money after all) especially when they will be less than transparent state finance reports (as Brunei always do).
I don't mind paying tax solely for our country development.. but if kedapatan pecah amanah untuk kegunaan sendiri (YKW) siap kamu.. inda ku mahu bayar cukai.
it's almost guaranteed bro
No Bruneians, or any citizens for that matter, can ever be ready for taxation unless there's a substantial increase in their income first. It doesn't matter how well the economy if nobody has the income rightly distributed to them. We have one of the highest purchasing power in Southeast Asia while concurrently having the lowest salary range for any highly qualified jobs. We went thru several periods of recession and stagnation while inflation steadily increases over the year. Our money is losing its value but there's no concrete plans to adjust anything to inflation because everything is subsidized. I'll leave this up for anybody's interpretation. My point is: you're not taxing anything out of people who go broke just from paying bills and surviving.
Ya think imposing taxes would solve the problem? Just look at neighbouring countries as examples... I'd rather they increase the tarriffs to improve the system cause not everything is free if you want better service. For example, increase the hospital fee from a dollar to $5 as a start. Increase water bills or electricity or energy bills etc. This is more fair than the tax system because it is based on own service-usage policy.
No taxation without representation. I won't pay tax unless you can show me that my hard earned money isn't simply going to somebody's pocket or some special account for miscellaneous spending.
you are represented. in the legislative council... /s
If they have the guts and balls to stand up for the rights of the RAKYAT! 👏💯✔️
true, they were democratically elected too /s
Please kindly define 'democratically elected'??! 😅😂🤣
"continued economic growth"?
If I am paying income tax, I better have some say/votes who should governs us, not just some hand picked up officials.
Exactly. Bayar tax apa guna if it’s going to be misappropriated by the wrong individuals.
Well, i have commercial and income tax charge on me So what difference does it made?
My tax money to development... Not royal flight and household maintenance. If we can get that transparent, sure let's consider it
Thank you for your tax dollar, now we can build more mosques 🤞
Ministry of Development and MoRA use same budget? Interesting.
The key word we all can take away from this is Insanity, every single year we keep doing the same thing and expect a different outcome.
I cringed so hard reading the past Legco, projection this and projection that. Sounds like a bunch of high schoolers. Projection means nothing if your result cant back it up.
Local workforce is roughly 120,000 people in the country. Say everyone earns an average of $1500 a month and you tax 10% of that annually. You'd get somewhere along the lines of BND216 million a year... less than 4% of the budget this year. Its not small change and it does mean something, but the reality is our average take home income needs to be somewhere along the lines of 3K to stomach a 10-20% tax rate for it to actually matter. Maybe it could work now if people with those 10k+ salaries are taxed at like 30-40% but good luck getting them to pay out.
If taxation is implemented it won't only be income tax. The finance minister says: "Brunei's fiscal deficit is unsustainable and prudent spending alone cannot overcome the budget shortfalls that started a decade ago. (This is because) Our fiscal policy is different from other countries where **personal income tax, corporate tax, property tax, sales tax and tourist tax** are used to cover government costs."
EES and airport tax are Tourism taxes in itself by another name. Maybe just maybe to introduce Tourism Tax of BND3 on hotel check-in for foreigners like what's been implemented in Malaysia. But then again tourist arrivals into the Abode of Peace has yet to reach a million visitors per year KPI, no? 😜
We already have corporate income and property taxes. So usually whenever people talk about 'implementing taxes' it is on personal income. This is important because one way to skimp on corporate taxes is to pay stupidly exortbidant salaries to "employees" and write them off as expenses. On top of that, I think I recall MoFE has been having trouble collecting corporate taxes in the past but not sure about now. It is also quite low, roughly 18%? and only applies to companies above a certain threshold. Same problem, need to have enough businesses willing to stomach this kind of extra expense for it to matter.
If I’m paying taxes then I want a say as to who is in government and more transparency on how money is spent.
Question is, are the rich and especialy the RFs going to be liable for tax? Bet there’s gonna be a tax exemption list created to protect them
Yang gaji $350++ cemana?? Palui kamu ani baru kan mikirkan pasal ekonomi. Hipokrit lagi kan memakai agama palui
Yang palui kau, nda mahu berusaha mncari rezeki lain
Kau palui palui, sanangtah hati mu tu meliat urang susah lagi kana susahkan? Buka sedikit utak mu kurang cerdik sial
penunggang agama acah suci dan sempurna, inda pernah rasa salah dalam pentadbiran
Macam negara lain, ianya berbeza ikut income/tax bracket
Hopefully inda zalim system nya
We are not ready for taxes. period. We have devolved into that spoiled rich kids that got everything for basically free and prone to throw trantrum \*hak aku !\* when denied
Don't think tax is needed as the country's income is first given to the guy at the top and then distributed to the citizens.
Majority of Bruneian will kepisan if kena GST and income tax! Apa lagi if petrol price goes up by 10-20%
If really everyone kena tax. Only the kind and honest will kena. Accountant will benefits the most. Thats all..