KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 3 -- Lower taxes for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), RM1.5 billion to accelerate smart manufacturing and a RM1 billion fund for industrial research and innovation - these were among the top Budget 2027 requests from the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) to the government.

FMM also proposed a tiered corporate income tax structure for qualifying SMEs, with a 15 per cent rate on the first RM1 million of chargeable income, 17 per cent on the next RM1 million and 24 per cent on income thereafter.

The proposed RM1.5 billion Smart Manufacturing Support Package would run from 2027 to 2030, with RM500 million for automation, RM750 million for manufacturing digitalisation and RM250 million for artificial intelli...