Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz has confirmed in Parliament today that the requirement for existing freight forwarding companies and International Integrated Logistic Services(IILS) to forcibly sell off their shares to increase the equity ownership to 51% bumi was not announced in 2018. This proves that MCA, Gerakan and SUPP lied by implying that I had implemented this ruling during my tenure as Finance Minister from 2018 to early 2020.
On the contrary I had rejected the proposal to retrospectively increase the 51% bumi equity ruling for existing freight forwarding companies that were given licenses before 1990. It is unfair to force owners to give up control of their freight forwarding companies after operating their business for decades, practicing double-standards in that only locally-owned IILS, and not foreign-owned, are subjected to such a ruling as well as unconstitutional in trying to apply the rules retrospectively.
Previously, no Bumiputera equity was required for licences held by integrated international logistics service(IILS) providers. However local IILS are required to give up control and have 51% bumi equity but not foreign-owned IILS. This is grossly unfair. For freight forwarding firms registered before 1976 are not required to have any Bumiputera equity, while a 30% quota was imposed on those registered between 1976 and 1990. The 51% Bumiputera equity requirement applies for firms registered after 1990.
Would the government, especially MCA, SUPP and Gerakan have the courage to revert to the position I had taken that logistic companies formed before 1990 should not be forced to sell their shares and give up control to comply with the 51% bumi equity ruling?