Use sin taxes to run Chinese schools, suggests tycoon
Eileen Ng, TMI
A property tycoon has suggested that money from sin taxes be used to help Chinese schools, as a way to fulfill MCA’s annual requests to Putrajaya for more money to run the institutions.
Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew, who is also Parit Sulong MCA division member, said the federal government could channel 20% of its revenue from alcohol and gambling taxes to Chinese schools to cover their operating expenses.
“The biggest problem facing Chinese education is in the allocation of funds. I propose that 20% from alcohol and gambling taxes be used as additional allocation to Chinese education,” he said in his debate at the party’s general assembly today.
Over the years, MCA had been widely blamed for the problems plaguing Chinese schools, which include shortage of teachers, limited funds, slow approval for new schools and non-recognition of private Chinese secondary school exams.
Since Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak took office in 2009, more than RM400 million has been set aside for Chinese schools, the highest in the nation’s history.
In Budget 2014, a total of RM54.6 billion or 21% of the budget’s total allocation was set aside for the development of the education system. Of this, RM450 million was allocated to a special fund from which RM100million would be channelled to national schools, RM50 million each to national-type Chinese and Tamil schools, mission schools, government-assisted religious schools, boarding schools, Maktab Rendah Sains Mara as well as People’s Religious Schools, or SAR.
Newly-elected MCA president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, however, was non-committal over Lee’s suggestion, saying that all proposals raised by delegates will be discussed at the central committee meeting soon.
“We need to ensure that whatever we propose later to the government is effective because we want to make sure the government implements them,” he said.
His deputy Datuk Wee Ka Siong, who is the former deputy education minister, acknowledged the need for more allocation to run the Chinese schools.
But Wee was unsure whether the current mechanism allowed the Treasury to channel allocations from sin taxes to run schools.
