KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 (Bernama) -- CIMB Bank Berhad (“CIMB” or “the Bank”) recently held a 2-hour webinar to share with SMEs critical information on taxation, opportunities and solutions to help them navigate the pandemic, following the Budget 2021 announcement. The session was co-hosted by Thenesh Kannaa, author of three books on Malaysian taxation and Partner at TraTax, and M.G. Ong, best-selling author of High Value Online Marketing Secrets for Small Business Owners and Chief Advisor of 6Biz.
 
With valuable insights on taxation and essential tools available for small businesses, the session saw close to 50 attendees from diverse business sectors such as engineering, apparel, consulting, academic institutions and other business enterprises.
 
Key items that SMEs could benefit from were covered in the session. These included tax rebates for new SMEs, reinvestment allowance, double deductions for senior citizens and ex-convicts, approved incentive schemes, as well as various specific tax incentives such as those for manufacturing, research and development, principal hub, global trading centre, healthcare, capital markets, equity crowdfunding, and real estate. Other topics highlighted include benefits valid for Year of Assessment 2021 onwards, eligibility as well as those announced under the PENJANA short-term economic recovery plan.
 
The use of data analytics, to help identify and solve business issues so that businesses are able to assess their sales model, was also covered. This includes how data analytics can be used as an aid to recover from the effects of the pandemic, providing clear opportunities for actionable insights such as maximising revenue, drive efficiency, predict business outcomes, while enabling SMEs to identify top products and better manage cash flow.

Apart from this, M.G Ong also offered free consultancy sessions for the first 10 companies. CIMB has supported over 700 SMEs since the start of the pandemic through a series of webinars to digitalise their businesses with Partners including Shopmatic, BusinessHR, Taylors Community and others. For updates on future sessions SMEs are encouraged to visit www.cimb.com for more information.

About CIMB
 
CIMB is one of ASEAN’s leading universal banking groups and Malaysia’s second largest financial services provider, by assets. Listed on Bursa Malaysia via CIMB Group Holdings Berhad, it had a market capitalisation of approximately RM30.6 billion as at 30 September 2020. It offers consumer banking, commercial banking, wholesale banking, transaction banking, Islamic banking and asset management products and services. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the Group is present in all 10 ASEAN nations (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Philippines). Beyond ASEAN, the Group has market presence in China, Hong Kong, India, Korea, the US and UK.
 
CIMB has one of the most extensive retail branch networks in ASEAN with 673 branches and around 34,000 employees as at 30 September 2020. The Group’s investment banking arm is one of the largest Asia Pacific-based investment banks, while it offers comprehensive research coverage of around 950 stocks in the region via its CGS-CIMB joint venture. CIMB is also the 92.5% shareholder of Bank CIMB Niaga in Indonesia, and 94.8% shareholder of CIMB Thai in Thailand.
 
SOURCE : CIMB Group

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Name: Lynn Guha Thakurta / Juanita Johari
Group Corporate Communications
CIMB Group Holdings Berhad
Email: lynn.thakurta@cimb.com / juanita.johari@cimb.com
 
--BERNAMA