Najib, who is also Finance Minister, said IAP will provide opportunities to investors in financing entrepreneurial activities and developing viable small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
“The IAP will be a platform to attract institutional and individual investors, inlcuding high net worth individuals, to invest in the Islamic financial market.
“Initially, the IAP will be implemented with a start-up fund of RM150 million,” he said when delivering the budget, themed ‘Budget 2015: People Economy’, in Parliament Friday.
To promote investment in IAP, the government has proposed that individual investors be given income tax exemption on profits earned from qualifying investment for three consecutive years, he said.
Najib said to boost domestic sukuk and bond issuance and trading, the government introduced the Exchange-Traded Bond and Sukuk (ETBS) in January 2013.
“The government proposes that the Malaysian Government Securities and Government Investment Issues be listed and traded on ETBS.
“Also, expenses incurred in the issuance of sukuk are given deduction from year of assessment 2003 until year of assessment 2015.
“Therefore, it is proposd that deduction for expenses incurred in the issuance of sukuk based on Ijarah and Wakalah principles be extended for another three years until the year of assessemnt 2019,” he said.
Najib said currently, the Malaysian Islamic finance accounted for 25 per cent of total assets in the banking system.
Internationally, the Malaysia remains as the largest sukuk market accounting for 60 per cent of the global sukuk market.
— BERNAMA
