PETALING JAYA, 8 Jan: The employee salary ladder should be increased gradually until the average household income earns a reasonable income before the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is implemented on 1 April 201.
The PKR Strategy Director, Rafizi Ramli, said that the approach should be implemented because the Federal Government has a major influence in setting pay rates in the public or private sector.
“The Federal Government has a great influence on the salary adjustments for employees of the public sector and the salaries of civil servants will be used as a reference in the private sector.
“The government is responsible for determining the labour cost incurred by employers through a variety of regulations, fees and other costs,” he told reporters at a press conference at the PKR Headquarters.
Rafizi is of the opinion that the statement by the KPMG accounting and tax firm senior partner, Johan Idris, who wants the salary to increase by six percent per annum to offset the rising cost of living, should be taken into account.
He said that KPMG’s views reflect the real sentiments of the people of Malaysia regarding the introduction of the new tax and the government’s failure to boost wages in the country.
“PKR maintains the opinion that as long as the government does not take effective measures to increase the salary of employees, then the GST cannot be implemented.
“Previously, PKR suggested for the minimum household income to reach RM4,000 a month before the GST is implemented,” he said.
Rafizi said that according to Bank Negara Malaysia, in the past 10 years, from 2000 to 2010, the average salary increase of Malaysians has only been at 2.6 percent each year.
“I am also concerned with BN’s passion in wanting to implementing the GST, to a point of spending a lot.
If the reason for implementing the GST is to reduce the national deficit, then any expenses involving the implementation of the GST should be strictly controlled,” he said.
