Answer for Written Question PT076

QUESTION

Yang Berhormat Pehin Orang Kaya Johan Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Adanan bin Begawan Pehin Siraja Khatib Dato Seri Setia Haji Md. Yusof

YANG BERHORMAT PEHIN ORANG KAYA JOHAN PAHLAWAN DATO SERI SETIA AWANG HAJI ADANAN BIN BEGAWAN PEHIN SIRAJA KHATIB DATO SERI SETIA HAJI MD. YUSOF asks YANG BERHORMAT Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Ekonomi II to state what are the strategic planning and action plans from the fiscal and monetary policy aspects to broaden the scope of national revenue in addressing the issue and challenges of the fiscal deficit being experienced, without burdening the low-income and underprivileged groups?

ANSWER

Yang Berhormat Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan dan Ekonomi II

The Government of Negara Brunei Darussalam continues to give high attention and take seriously the issue of the fiscal deficit which has persisted until now.

As kaola have shared before, the Ministry of Finance and Economy is actively implementing the Fiscal Consolidation Programme (FCP) initiative aimed at restructuring national revenue and expenditure to ensure that government expenditure will be at a sustainable level.

Therefore, the Government continues to strive to expand and diversify sources of national revenue. This includes, among others, through:

• Reassessment of the fee and service charge structure, so that it better reflects the actual cost of service delivery without burdening low-income groups.

In this regard, Ministries and Government agencies have already been advised to continuously review the service rates currently imposed to ensure whether they are still relevant or need to be updated, including also introducing suitable new charges;

• Modernisation of revenue collection and taxation systems, including improving compliance and reducing leakages. Initiatives to modernise the existing tax policy by improving tax legislation administration as well as reviewing existing tax incentives and tax rates are also being given attention and are under study to reduce loopholes that lead to tax evasion and revenue leakages; and

• To address outstanding payments, the government has introduced smart meters for electricity and water as well as reviewing service charges and other subsidies provided.

Nevertheless, any policy updates related to taxes or service charges must be carried out carefully and in a balanced manner without burdening low-income and underprivileged groups. The Government will also intensify efforts to ensure that the policies introduced can be considered for phased implementation so as not to negatively affect the people's purchasing power, not sharply increase the cost of living, and not affect domestic economic growth.

In terms of expenditure as well, the Government will always remain committed to ensuring that expenditure made is based on the allocations that have been given and according to needs. Other measures are also being taken, such as exploring corporatisation methods and Public Private Partnership (PPP) to reduce the burden of government expenditure while further improving the efficiency of service delivery.

That is all, thank you Yang Berhormat Yang Di-Pertua.