Its minister, Tengku Zafrul Aziz, said the bill was part of efforts to broaden the country’s tax base, including taxing the shadow economy, and improve tax compliance.

“This is crucial to replenish the nation’s coffers to support our development and longer-term reform agenda,” he said in a keynote address at the virtual Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) International Accountants Conference 2022 here today.

Tengku Zafrul also said three main strategies were being prioritised to drive sustainable nation-building and support the nation’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspirations.

The first strategy was to strengthen sustainability-related financing, which complements the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The second was to develop the capacity of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as one of the key building blocks to achieve Malaysia’s ESG aspirations and net-zero carbon goal by 2050.

The third strategy, he said, was to establish a Malaysia sustainable development goals trust fund (MySDG Fund) through the finance ministry in collaboration with the UN in Malaysia.