Scrap GST now to counter inflation, says Kula

Opposition MP wants special parliamentary session to be convened to address country’s critical inflation issues.

IPOH: The DAP has called on the federal government to implement measures to urgently counter the inflationary pressures on the people.

Party national vice-chairman M Kula Segaran suggested for Putrajaya to immediately cancel the Goods and Services Tax (GST), describing it as a wrong move at the wrong time.

“GST abolition will ease inflationary pressure and reduce the extra cost burden to the public,” said Kula, urgently calling for a special parliamentary session to be convened to address the country’s critical inflation issues.

He claimed that inflationary pressures had made it difficult for those from the low and middle income brackets to meet their daily ends.

Based on quarterly rates provided by the statistics department, the Malaysian consumer price index had gone up from 1.8 per cent in April to 2.5 per cent in June and 3.3 per cent in July.

“Based on the statistics it is obvious that the price of basic items such as food has gone up and this nullifies the government’s assurance that there would not be a drastic increase of the price of food items after the imposition of the GST.

“Furthermore the continued decline of the ringgit has already exacerbated the inflationary crisis.

“With the impending interest rate hike in the United States, there will be a further decline of the ringgit,” warned Kula, MP for Ipoh Barat.

Malaysia is going through a cost push inflation due to the high cost of raw materials, a vital component of production, which local businesses import in US dollars.

Kula said it was obvious that business establishments had passed the cost burden on to consumers while suppliers and middlemen had capitalised on the GST and the reduction in fuel subsidies, to profiteer.

Kula claimed that the federal government’s recent measure to restore confidence in the equity market by injecting RM20 billion into ValueCap for investment would not resolve the fundamental issues affecting the people, which was the rapidly rising cost of living.

He claimed Prime Minister and Finance Minister Najib Razak had failed to address issues related to living costs that resonate with ordinary people and pushed for the federal government to implement effective remedial measures to address inflationary pressures.

“A responsible government places the wellbeing of common people as its main priority,” reminded Kula.