PETALING JAYA: A small and medium businesses’ group has called on the federal government to implement policies that can ease their financial burden arising from adopting regulatory compliance measures to be enforced this year.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia (Samenta) says SMEs will see a steep hike in compliance-related costs in 2026, which might reduce their typical 10% to 15% net margins.
Samenta president William Ng said among the regulations that would increase the operational costs of SMEs were the stamp duty self-assessment system; the multi-tier levy system for foreign workers; the sector-specific carbon tax; and clean toilet requirements for food businesses.