Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative Minister Datuk Noh Omar said the bank, to be set up by July, would be similar to Bank Rakyat (Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Bhd), the country’s largest cooperative bank.
He said two more similar banks were expected to be set up in the next five years.
Noh also called for the reduction of the maximum 28% tax currently imposed on cooperatives, which was higher than the 25% tax imposed on private corporations.
“Cooperatives also have to pay another 3% to the Cooperative Commission of Malaysia (CCM) for the building and education funds at 2% and 1% respectively,” he said yesterday after opening a cooperative tax seminar organised by the Inland Revenue Board Cooperative.
Noh said there was a total of 5,600 cooperatives in the country with over six million members, a total membership fee of RM7.8bil and assets worth about RM47.4bil.
“More than 80% of cooperatives are small in size, contributing less than RM200,000 in sales value.
“Currently, cooperatives are only contributing 1% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compared to the 5% to 10% contributed in developed countries,” he added.
Noh added that their target was to get cooperatives to contribute at least 5% to the GDP by 2020 and to help them achieve sales of between RM800,000 and RM1.5mil by 2013.
He said as of 2007, only 63 cooperatives were qualified to pay tax totalling RM155.5mil given their small growth.
He said bigger cooperatives such as the National Cooperatives Organisation of Malaysia (Angkasa) should jointly set up banks.
CCM executive chairman Datuk Mangsor Saad said the bank would be an expansion of the current Bank Persatuan Cooperative, which was previously set up to help members obtain credit.
IRB chief executive officer Datuk Hasmah Abdullah acknowledged that the maximum 28% tax was higher than the corporate tax and that they would work with CCM on the matter.
She also said those who wanted to submit their tax via e-filing could do so from now.
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