GST rate will increase with time, says Rafizi
The goods and services tax rate will not remain at
6% but will increase to a higher amount over time,
PKR's Rafizi Ramli told a forum on the controversial
consumption tax.
The PKR secretary-general (pic, right) said there
was no country in the world that had introduced a
similar consumption tax and retained the original
rate.
"Why the GST is considered an easy tax and effective
for the government is because it is very easy to
collect taxes that can be higher just by increasing
the rate every year. So this 6% rate has been fixed
as the minimum rate to pay off debts and cover their
current expenses.
"In the future, the government debt will continue to
increase and the expenses, too, will become higher
and Putrajaya will increase the GST from the current
6% to a higher rate," the Pandan MP said at a GST
forum at the Petaling Jaya City Council community
library. |
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Rafizi said if a
comparison were made with countries such as Singapore
which introduced the GST before Malaysia, it would show
that the neighbouring country had a GST rate of only 2%
when it was first introduced some 15 to 20 years ago,
but that it had since increased to 7%.
"So if we start at 6%, and the rate doubles in the next
10 years, it will become 12%, for example.
"So for me, it is confirmed that the tax will be raised,
it's just that we don't know when," the Pandan MP said.
When asked if there was a possibility that the tax would
be increased next year, the PKR vice-president said: “I
don’t think it will increase next year, as BN is already
in a difficult spot now.”
He said that the
increase would not happen in the next two years.
"Maybe in 2018. But there are huge risks. If BN wins,
they will not increase it to 6.5%, but it might go up to
9%. So this means that if they raise it, they will take
into account the years when it was not increased.
"In fact, I think looking
at how BN raises the prices of goods or tariff, they
usually do not go slow but instead put in a drastic
hike. That is why in 2008, petrol prices were pushed up
to RM2.20 from RM1.30 as they had said once before that
the people will accept it once they get used to it," he
said.
Rafizi also hit out at Deputy Finance
Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan who continued to compare
Malaysia with other countries that have already
introduced the GST.
"In this life, we don't have to see what others are
doing then only we do it. We have to look at its
suitability. I reject the GST because it is not
suitable," he said. Rafizi added that the implementation
of the GST had to be done depending on the level of the
country's economic spectrum, and that the tax was not
appropriate as it burdened all layers of society
including low-income earners.
"GST is a new tax concept that Malaysia had never had.
And everyone, including the poor, have to pay. That is
not right. The tax is oppressive and burdensome to the
people," he said.
The forum, which was organised by the Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia student council, was also supposed
to feature Umno Youth exco Ibdillah Ishak as one of the
guest speakers, but he failed to attend the session and
did not offer a reason for his absence.
Yesterday, PKR urged Putrajaya to exempt four categories
of child products from the GST including doctors'
consultation fees, medication and vitamins, sanitation
products and milk.
The party's strategic director Sim Tze Tzin said that
Putrajaya should not be taxing those who were ill as no
one wanted to be sick or have a disease.
Ahmad had previously challenged Pakatan Rakyat to come
up with an alternative to the GST if they rejected its
implementation.
He said that the GST was a taxation system that lessened
the people's burdens, contrary to what the opposition
was saying in the campaigns of both the Permatang Pauh
and Rompin by-elections.
The deputy minister said that if the opposition rejected
the implementation of the GST, he wanted to know what
alternatives they could come up with to lessen the
people's burdens and at the same time develop the
country. – April 24, 2015.
Source::
The Malaysian Insider , dated 24/04/2015......... |