SHAH ALAM, 24 Apr: The people are expected to continue to be burdened when the two main sectors, healthcare and housing, will be experiencing an increase in price after the goods and services tax (GST) comes into force on 1 April 2015.
The Central PAS Working Committee Member, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, said that although services and hospital treatment are exempt from the tax list, the cost of medicine and healthcare equipment will be taxed.
“Taking the example of KPJ Healthcare Bhd, we predict that the hospital bill at the private hospital will increase by three to five percent each year,” he wrote on his blog.
He said that the housing and property sector will not be exempt from experiencing an increase as soon as the GST is implemented.
In fact, he said, this was also admitted by a Vice President of MCA, who is of the opinion that the price of houses will increase because developers are not willing to bear the six percent tax on various construction material.
“He (the MCA Vice President) predicted an increase in the price of houses when the goods tax cannot be shouldered by developers and it will eventually be transferred to buyers who have to pay a high price to own a home.
“Clearly, in the two previous examples, regardless of developer or trader, will transfer their increase in cost because of the payment of the six percent GST to the consumers; the people.
“Businessmen cannot transfer the cost of tax to consumers, but in reality, all goods and services taxed will be transferred and burden the people,” he added.
Therefore, he said, everyone, including members of Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) are urged to go to Dataran Merdeka on May 1 to state their protest against the implementation of the GST.
