GST – Gigit Sampai Tulang

Selena Tay
| June 1, 2013

GST will tax everyone regardless of whether the person is rich or poor when in fact the poor should be allowed to escape this dragnet.

COMMENT

Now that the kid gloves have been taken off, the BN federal government is going to launch a major offensive against the rakyat, especially the low-income group although not in the immediate future.

And this major offensive is none other than the Goods & Services Tax (GST).

According to Dzulkefly Ahmad, the former Kuala Selangor MP and the current PAS research director, the rate of 7% which is mentioned recently is very high and shows Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak breaking his promise when the earlier figure given was 4%.

Dzulkefly opined that “7% is proposed perhaps because the prime minister has only just woken up to the fact that the national debt is nearing the ceiling set by parliament which is 55% of the GDP. Or perhaps the prime minister is unhappy with the rakyat for denying him the two third parliamentary majority besides still voting for Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in Selangor”.

(PM Najib had vowed to regain the 2/3 majority and recapturing Selangor before the 13th general election.)

One has to take note that Singapore whose citizens earn nearly twice more than Malaysians had started their GST at the rate of 3%. Still, Singapore experienced inflation at 3% for three consecutive years after the implementation of GST. Currently Singapore’s GST stands at 7%.

If BN leaders want to adopt the Singaporean GST rate, then they should also follow Singapore’s strict laws in curbing corruption.

In principle, Pakatan leaders do not reject the implementation of GST but is of the firm stand that it can only be implemented when a significant proportion of Malaysians are earning well. It is a known fact that Malaysian wages have only rose at 2.8% for the last decade and this was reported by the World Bank itself.

On the other hand, Dzulkefly noted that the prime minister is still delaying the implementation of the minimum wage policy.

“To increase the nation’s revenue, corruption and cronyism has to be seriously curbed while the monopolies, oligopolies and cartels have to be re-structured,” added Dzulkefly.

The rakyat’s disposable income must be increased and if there is GST, the low-wage earner who is currently earning RM800 per month will be unable to save anything while the person who is earning RM6,000 a month will not feel the pinch.

Therefore, GST will burden the low-wage earner and it is thus a regressive tax because the poorer the person is, the more he is taxed as GST will take up a large proportion of his expenditure through taxes incurred on purchases while under the current system he is not taxed at all.

GST will tax everyone regardless of whether the person is rich or poor when in fact the poor should be allowed to escape this dragnet.

A cunning move

GST must not be implemented as long as the BN federal government still fail to stem the leakages and prevent the wastages that are occurring daily in its administration and reported in the annual Auditor-General’s Report.

Dzulkefly warned the BN federal government not to deceive the rakyat again after deceiving the gullible voters in the 13th general election.

PAS Temerloh MP, Nasruddin Hassan Tantawi is disappointed that even without the two third parliamentary majority, PM Najib is still determined to push ahead with the implementation of GST.

“The BN federal government is stubbornly insistent on GST because it will bring riches into the nation’s coffers amounting to RM27 billion but will this benefit the rakyat?” questioned Nasruddin who also stressed that GST will burden the poor.

DAP’s Petaling Jaya Utara MP, Tony Pua is of the view that it is pointless to implement GST to fill up the nation’s coffers when the twin ills of corruption and cronyism continue unabated.

His DAP colleague, Lim Guan Eng the Penang Chief Minister who is an accountant by profession has calculated that it is possible for the BN federal government to give RM1,200 per household under the BR1M programme when the government has taxed RM5,000 per household via the GST and has labelled the GST a cunning move to regain much more than what has been given out.

PKR’s Wong Chen, the Kelana Jaya MP remarked that GST will be a terrible burden for the poor because the poor cannot afford to pay taxes but when there is GST they will be taxed as well.

Prices of goods will definitely soar after the implementation of GST and if the RON 95 petrol price goes up too, the low-wage earner is in for very tough times ahead.

PAS deputy president, Mohamad Sabu who is popularly known as Mat Sabu has lambasted the rural voters who had voted for BN despite repeated warnings from Pakatan leaders on this GST issue because due to their votes, the urban poor (and there are many of them) will suffer under the GST which has been labelled as Mat Sabu as BN’s 13th general election gift to the rakyat.

Now we will not be able to benefit from the goodies promised in Pakatan’s manifesto such as cars priced at RM25,000, the reduction of RON 95 petrol price, the abolition of toll charges, the reduction of electricity rates, the abolition of student loans and the AES (Automated Enforcement System) and other people-friendly policies, all because of the unwise and gullible minority! What a bummer!

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.

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