KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 22): TA Securities said tax collection from e-invoicing can hit RM260 billion or more in 2025 on the assumption of 8% growth from 2024.
The research house noted that the government's target tax collection was RM243.6 billion for 2024 while the revised figure was RM229.2 billion in 2023.
"We expect the e-invoicing to lead to an increase in tax revenues. It is difficult to directly calculate the impact, but we believe it will help the government achieve its 2024 tax collection target (both direct and indirect tax) of RM243.6 billion," it said in a note on Thursday.
In the first quarter of this year, Malaysia has recorded a total revenue of almost RM70 billion, of which RM36.9 billion is from direct taxes, RM15.7 billion is from indirect taxes and the balance consists of non-tax revenue.
"This (2025 collection) will be supported by strong economic growth and measures taken to further increase revenue mobilisation by expanding the tax base and improving tax compliance and transparency. Further forecast details will be outlined in our 2025 Budget Preview report later," it said.
As such, TA Securities maintained its budget deficit forecast of 4.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, a tad lower than the government’s target of 4.3% deficit.
"The aim is to lessen our deficit to 3.5% by 2026 and 3.0% or less within three to five years and cap the total debt-to-GDP ratio at no more than 60%," it added.