Budget 2027 Boosts Household Income, Eases Cost Of Living - Says UUM Academic

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 13 (Bernama) -- The 2027 Budget, themed “Reaching for the Skies, While Anchored on Our Values”, outlines the government’s efforts to address the rising cost of living through higher incomes, tax relief and direct financial assistance to households.

Dean of the School of Multimedia Technology and Communication, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM),  Associate Professor Dr Mohd Khairie Ahmad, said the budget also strengthened the support system for the people, covering areas such as home ownership, transportation and healthcare.

He said the key measures announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in the Dewan Rakyat last Friday were significant, with their benefits expected to begin reaching the public as early as January 2027.

“The 2027 Budget essentially answers five key questions facing households. When it comes to the cost of living, the issue is not just rising prices but also the inability of incomes to keep pace with increasing expenses,” he told Bernama.

Mohd Khairie said the budget acknowledged the gap, noting that workers’ compensation accounted for about 33.9 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

As part of efforts to address the issue, the minimum wage will be raised from RM1,700 to RM2,000 from June 2027, benefiting more than four million workers.

He said the government had also introduced a RM2,500 minimum wage benchmark for semi-skilled jobs and graduates, while government-linked investment companies (GLICs) and government-linked companies (GLCs) had raised their living wage benchmark to RM3,400.

For gig workers, he said the measures were expected to translate into higher median net monthly incomes, with e-hailing drivers projected to gain RM227 and p-hailing delivery riders RM100.

On taxation, Mohd Khairie said changes to tax reliefs and rates were expected to provide up to RM1,600 in additional disposable income for about five million taxpayers.

He said this would be supported by an increase in individual tax relief from RM9,000 to RM12,000.

“The tax rate for taxable income of RM70,001 to RM100,000 is reduced to 18 per cent, while the rate for income of RM100,001 to RM150,000 is set at 24 per cent,” he said.

Tax reliefs have also been expanded to cover postnatal care, the care of parents and grandparents, education fees, sports shoes and selected lifestyle expenses.

Mohd Khairie said the budget had also allocated RM16 billion for the Sumbangan Tunai Rahmah (STR) and Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) programmes, which would benefit nine million recipients.

In addition, citizens aged 18 and above who were not STR recipients would receive two RM100 SARA MADANI payments, including those from the middle-income (M40) group, he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Khairie stressed the need for the government to communicate its initiatives more effectively to ensure the public understood the assistance available and how to access it.

“The government actually has a lot of initiatives. But in this age of information overload, more announcements do not necessarily lead to greater understanding.

“A more effective communication formula is to translate government language into household language, answering everyday questions with figures, dates and simple examples,” he said.

-- BERNAMA