SHAH ALAM, 12 Apr: Recommendations for university students to cook to reduce the burden of the goods and services tax (GST) are considered irrelevant because it may lead to danger if done in hostels.
The Vice Chancellor for the University of Selangor (Unisel), Prof Dr Anuar Ahmad, said that it is a good proposal but it can only be done by students living outside hostels or at rented houses.
“If it is done at hostels, we fear it especially when electricity consumption increases.
“Like in Bestari Jaya, we have 44 hostel blocks and almost 1,000 rooms. If 1,000 rooms use rice cookers at the same time, there will be an overload in electricity consumption which may lead to a fire,” he told Selangor Kini today.
Anuar said that electricity consumption is not as much for boiling water and cooking instant noodles, and may not cause problems in this issue.
Elaborating, he said that Unisel will impose reasonable and very low fees to canteen food suppliers at the university to reduce students’ burden.
“In terms of rent, it is at the minimum and we hope that the food sole is cheap. We limited the price for lunch between RM3 to RM5; it cannot exceed this.
“However, it depends on students as if they take a lot, the price will be more, if they eat normally, it is estimated to be between RM4 and RM5, ehough for one meal,” he said.
It was reported that the Deputy Minister of Finance, Datuk Ahmad Maslan, during a question and answer session at the ‘GST, Budget and Current Issues Information Session’ at the Mara University of Technology (UiTM) yesterday suggested for students to cook to reduce the GST burden, causing dissatisfaction among students.
NS
