SHAH ALAM, 4 May: The Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, said that his statement saying that he supports the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been misinterpreted.
Previously, some media reported that Abdul Khalid personally agrees with the implementation of the GST.
“I clearly said that implementation of GST can only be done if Gini coefficient is less than 4.5.
“Until the federal government address the issue of income equality, GST implementation must be deferred,” said Abdul Khalid, quoted from his Facebook page.
Earlier, Abdul Khalid said that the the GST, which the Federal Government wants to introduce next year, is not yet suitable to be implemented until the income disparity of the low and middle income earners is narrowed first.
This is because the people, who are now in the low and middle income groups, is still the largest group of people in the country.
This situation causes the low-income earners to be forced to pay an equal amount of tax with the middle-income group to obtain the same goods and services.
On May 1, about 50,000 people filled Jalan Raja at Dataran Merdeka to protest massively against the implementation of the GST starting April 2015.
