☕️ New Year, New Tax - 10% on online goods purchased overseas worth less than RM500

1. MARKET SUMMARY

2. NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

USD182 bil — the wealth Elon Musk lost since November 2021, according to estimates by Forbes. However, not all is lost because Musk broke Guinness World Record for the largest loss of personal fortune in history. As of January 2023, Musk is estimated to be worth USD138 bil. His net worth dropped largely due to the poor performance of Tesla’s stock. The previous Guinness World Record holder? Masayoshi Son of SoftBank when he lost USD58.6 bil in 2000.

At least he got a trophy.

Looks like short-form videos are here to stay. Channels — WeChat’s fledgling short-video feed saw its total number of views increased by 200% in 2022, thanks to AI recommendations and news video views. Tencent wants WeChat users’ attention in an increasingly crowded content market to counter the slowing growth in search. Executives have said advertising revenue from Channels should surpass 1bil yuan (RM645mil) in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The northeast monsoon in Dec 2022 caused damages and losses amounting to RM111.95 mil, according to Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu. The annual monsoon impacted 12,000 farmers, breeders as well as agro-food entrepreneurs throughout the country. The ministry assured the food supply of the country was still intact.

3. IN MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

Malaysia lost to Thailand in AFF Mitsubishi CupHarimau Malaya's run in the regional AFF Mitsubishi Cup comes to an end after the national team was defeated by Thailand three goals to none in the second leg game of the semi-final in Pathum Thani. The two-leg semi-finals ended 3-1, with Thailand advancing to the final for the tenth time. We want to take this opportunity to congratulate the national team for trying their best. Watch the match highlights below.

The Batang Kali K9 heroes were honouredFour dogs — Blake, Lady, Grouse and Pop — from the Fire and Rescue Department were awarded the Golden Performance medal for their outstanding contribution to finding the victims of the deadly Batang Kali landslide that claimed 31 lives. According to the fire department’s K9 unit director-general, Mohammad Hamdan Wahid, the dogs, also known as ‘living assets’, were trained daily in disaster management and able to detect drowned victims at a depth between 0.9 to 1.82 metres underwater.

CM Hajiji will still retain his job, for nowAfter the meeting between PM Anwar Ibrahim and Sabah state leaders had concluded, the PM proposed that Sabah should form a unity government consisting of all parties. He gave his blessings to Sabah Chief Minister (CM) Hajiji Noor to remain in his role. UMNO Sabah chief Bung Mokhtar and Warisan chief Shafie Apdal had declared their support for PM Anwar’s proposal to form a unity government. Previously, both Bung and Shafie had planned a coup to topple the state government, which obviously had failed.

Malaysia to speed up foreign recruitment drive in order meet market demandsThe home minister Saifuddin Nasution, where his ministry had taken over the human resource ministry’s role in recruiting foreign workers, had announced that Putrajaya will waive industry quotas in order to speed up the hiring of foreign workers. Employers will no longer have to abide by the quotas if they hire them from the chosen 15 source countries. This temporary measure will last a year and is limited to new hires only.

Review on Najib Razak’s case shortened to one dayThe Federal Court had stated that the apex court will only hear Najib Razak’s bid to review his conviction in the RM42mil SRC International for one day only on Jan 19. The apex court said that the decision to shorten the review application from three separate days to one day was mainly due to other work obligations that the judges had to attend on the other dates.

New year, new taxFrom April 2023, Malaysians who purchased goods valued less than RM500 from overseas will be subject to a 10% tax. The new sales tax was announced in Budget 2022 and was gazetted as law in October 2022. So, how does it work? The additional tax will only be applied to the actual value of the goods and not on delivery and insurance charges. So, for example, if you buy RM200 worth of goods and the delivery charge is RM10, you will need to pay an extra RM20 when the low-value goods (LVG) tax is being enforced in April. Here is a complete guide by the accounting firm KPMG on the new LVG tax for those forced labourers accountants.

Shorts

1. Putrajaya will extend the RM4.9bil concession contract for the government-integrated telecommunication network MyGov*Net to Telekom Malaysia (TM) for another ten years. MyGov*Net is a government-integrated telecommunication network that connects more than 10,000 government premises in Malaysia and Malaysian embassies overseas. The network integrates with the intranet, internet, government campus networks and public-sector data centres. 

2. The High Court granted the petition by a syndicate of financial institutions consisting of Standard Chartered Saadiq Bhd, HSBC Amanah Malaysia Bhd, AmBank Islamic Bhd, MIDF Amanah Investment Bank Bhd, United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Bhd, and Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd to wind up the once high-flying Serba Dinamik Holdings Berhad and its three subsidiaries due to debts amounted to about RM5bil. A timeline by The Edge on how this RM6 bil company fell into liquidation — worth the read, lots of drama.

3. The defence ministry will not cancel its planned purchase of 18 light combat aircraft (LCA). Previously, the multi-billion Ringgit LCA tender was embroiled in a scandal when one of the bidders in the tender accused one of its competitors lobbied for the awards even though the bidder did meet the specification of the end user.

4. Berjaya Corporation Berhad (BCorp) is in the midst of acquiring a controlling stake in the life insurance company, MCIS Life Berhad, as confirmed via its brief bourse filing. Berjaya Corp has been negotiating with South Africa-based Sanlam Ltd since last year to buy the latter’s 51% stake in MCIS Life.

4. AROUND THE WORLD 🌎

Microsoft got infatuated with ChatGPTMicrosoft Corp is interested in investing USD10 bil into OpenAI, which would value the firm at USD29 bil, according to Semafor. OpenAI is the owner of ChatGPT, which took the world by storm a few weeks ago with its human-like chatbox. The Semafor report revealed the funding terms — Microsoft will be receiving 75% of OpenAI’s profits until it recoups the initial investment. On hitting that threshold, Microsoft would have a 49% stake in OpenAI.

Back in July 2019, Microsoft had already invested USD1 bil in OpenAI with the aim to build artificial general intelligence (AGI) with widely distributed economic benefits.

PSA — Stay off dubious apps that claim to be “ChatGPT” on both the App Store and the Play Store. ChatGPT is free to use for anyone on the web, give it a try.

Japanese feeling the heat of inflationCore consumer prices in Japan’s capital Tokyo rose a faster-than-expected 4.0% in December from a year earlier, exceeding the Bank of Japan’s 2% target. The rise in the Tokyo core consumer price index (CPI) is used as a leading indicator of nationwide trends. The last time Tokyo inflation was faster was in April 1982, when the core CPI was 4.2% higher than a year before.

BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda dismissed the chance of a near-term interest rate hike until the current cost-push inflation turns into a demand-driven one accompanied by higher wages.

China’s tit for tatIn response to the surge of the Covid wave in China, Japan and South Korea have imposed Covid restrictions on Chinese travellers. In retaliation, China has suspended the issuance of short-term visas to individuals from South Korea and Japan. Beijing says the suspension will remain until “discriminatory” entry restrictions against China are lifted.

Galactic Energy 5 — 0 Virgin OrbitBeijing-based rocket start-up Galactic Energy successfully sent five satellites into orbit on Monday, the first in a series of 8 to 10 missions planned for this year. China’s successful launches took place on the same day the UK’s space efforts suffered a setback.

Virgin Orbit used a modified 747 jet to send nine satellites into space by dropping a rocket from under the aircraft’s wing mid-flight – a method known as air launch. The company tweeted the LauncherOne rocket managed to reach Earth orbit but deleted it after 30 minutes. The company announced the launch had “an anomaly” and that the nine satellites onboard would not reach orbit. It was Virgin Orbit’s sixth mission to date and its second failure. The company is currently investigating what went wrong.

EU 🤝 NATOThe EU and NATO pledged to enhance their cooperation to counter growing geopolitical threats. The stronger ties between the 27-member European bloc (EU) and the 30-member military alliance (NATO) come amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as Sweden and Finland’s plans to join NATO. ringing the EU and NATO closer is not an easy task: Turkey, a NATO ally, has a troubled relationship with some European capitals.

Shorts

1. Earth’s ozone layer could be restored in two to four decades’ time if current policies are maintained, that is. The ozone layer began depleting in the 1970s due to the usage of harmful chemicals. BBC News put together an infographic to show how big the holes in the ozone layer were over time.

2. Welsh footballer Gareth Bale calls it a day at the age of 33. Bale established himself as one of the greatest players in Welsh football history after an illustrious career at Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur and Real Madrid. Bale played 664 matches for club and country and scored 226 goals.

3. After their unsuccessful attempt to leave Myanmar, 112 people from the minority Rohingya, including 12 children, were sentenced to jail by a court in Myanmar. The group was caught after they were discovered on a motorboat “without any official documents”. Rohingyas are denied citizenship and other fundamental rights in Buddhist-majority Myanmar. You read it right - children were sentenced to jail. 

4. Over 1,500 supporters of far-right former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro were detained in Brasilia after storming the capital over the weekend. The mobs rampaged through Congress, the Supreme Court and presidential offices, smashing windows, furniture and artwork.

5. FOR YOUR EYES 👁👁

1. EU has been coming down hard on tech companies in protecting privacy.

2. Not a hard rule to follow to be successful. Often, success is being able to do what is important to you, day in and day out. In Marc Randolph’s (co-founder and the first CEO of Netflix) case, it’s his Tuesday evenings with his best friend.

3. The latest Antman sequel trailer just dropped. Out 17 Feb.