Don’t worry about GST, rural folk told

October 27, 2013

Sarawak Minister William Mawan claims that the Prime Minister has a "soft spot" for the state and Sabah because in last year's budget he had given them "an extra RM2 billion".

KANOWIT: There is no need for rural folks in Sarawak to worry about the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) because it won’t affect them significantly.

This was the view expressed by state Minister for Social Development William Mawan.

“What the government is doing is basically to strengthen the country’s

finance.

“When it has more fund, it can do more for the country’s development and progress.

“But the opposition might exploit GST in order to drive a wedge between the people and the government,” he said during a meet-the-people session at the longhouse Rh.Brian Langit in Ulu Jih, here last night.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had on Friday said, during his tabling of the 2014 national budget that GST would be intrsoduced in Malaysia in April 2015.

Speaking to reporters later, Mawan, who is also the president of the Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party, said the 2014 national budget like the previous one, had a lot of goodies for everyone.

“Things like the increased amount for BRIM, the education aid for students which is maintained, among others will make a lot of people in the low-income group happy.

“Najib is fulfulling whatever he has promised during his walkabouts in the state,” he said.

He added, however, in terms of infrastructure development with regard to roads, rural electrification programme and rural water supply, Sarawak was still lagging quite far behind.

This was because of its sheer size and its widely and sparsely distributed population which needed a lot of fund.

However, he said Najib had taken much effort to improve the situation and he had obviously a soft spot for Sarawak and Sabah as evident in last year’s budget where he had put in an extra RM2 billion over what had been allocated for the two states.

-Bernama