GEORGE TOWN: The Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP) has submitted its recommendations for the 2023 Budget to the Treasury last week.

They cover a number of topics including governance, healthcare, housing, food security, inclusive development, environmental issues, disaster risk management and proposal for tax measures.

CAP president Mohideen Abdul Kader hopes the ideas and suggestions could be considered by the government to meet the needs of the majority, advance the sustainability agenda, protect the environment and public health, increase the country's resilience against climate change and prevent disasters.

On food security, Mohideen said CAP had made several suggestions to increase food security and sovereignty. 

He said among them was to convert idle land to farmland for food crops or for animal feed; increase incentives to encourage local farmers and entrepreneurs to generate organic and sustainable chemical-free farming produce; and link smallholding farmers to a comprehensive marketing system.

"We also recommend that a national blueprint on agro-ecology to be formulated and implemented, besides giving support to urban farming by providing adequate infrastructure and financial resources for start-up costs, which are non-chemical based.

"In view of reviving local seed diversity, scaling up agro-biodiversity and ensuring food security, the government must support networks of farmers and seed savers, and activities leading to sharing of seeds, knowledge and experiences; support community seed banks and on-farm conservation of agricultural biodiversity," he added.

On the matter of governance, CAP proposed that the anti-corruption agency (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) be adequately funded with competent and qualified investigators with integrity to intensify investigation and prosecution without fear or favour.

"We also want to push education for the public, including children on the evils of corruption, and for whistleblowers to be protected and rewarded," he said.

Regarding tax measures, Mohideen said CAP had proposed a capital gains tax and to increase the rate of the Real Property Gains Tax for the first five years.

"We also recommend sin tax for alcohol, tobacco products and gambling, with the tax collected used for health promotion and treatment of non-communicable diseases (NCD).

"We also suggest luxury tax be imposed on goods considered expensive, unnecessary and non-essential, and this is only incurred by those who purchase or use the product and luxury services," he added.

CAP, Mohideen said, also provided several ideas in terms of implementation of a comprehensive disaster risk management strategy, encompassing hazard and risk management, vulnerability reduction and preparedness as well as response and recovery.

He said among them were preventing disasters through environmentally sound and sustainable plans, in particular in environmentally-sensitive areas such as forests, hill slopes and highlands, and cease all proposals of coastal and sea reclamation activities in Malaysia.

On healthcare, Mohideen said CAP had proposed an increase in funding, with a call for proper auditing of the amount spent to ensure that there was wastage and leakages.

"CAP also wants education programmes and effective campaigns to be conducted to promote healthy living. Specialist centres such as the University Malaya Specialist Centre should also be set up in other government hospitals," he added.

Meanwhile, Mohideen said both the federal and state land should be developed by a housing authority instead of private developers under non-transparent joint-venture agreements.

"The government must develop tax incentives, supply-side and demand-side subsidies as well as other fiscal policies, to facilitate social and rental housing, besides acquiring land for social housing and developing land banks for housing throughout the country.

"The government should seriously think about renting as a solution to our housing affordability crisis as many studies have shown that even the middle class cannot own housing units as housing prices have skyrocketed.

"Malaysia can learn from Germany where laws have protected tenants and landlords fairly without stagnating their housing supply," he pointed out.

CAP also advocated rural reconstruction to encourage people to go back to rural areas by improving rural livelihoods, infrastructure and social amenities.

The government, Mohideen noted, needed to strategise and implement a plan of action to assert people to take pride and have confidence in traditional way of life and not be led by modern materialistic culture.

"The federal and state governments must review their plans for the development of the rural economy, taking into account the needs of local communities and indigenous peoples," he stressed.