KUALA LUMPUR, 3 Oct: The refusal by the Federal Government to disclose the list of goods that will be charged the goods and services tax (GST) of 6 percent has puzzled the people as to whether fuel such as petrol and diesel will be listed.
This raises the people’s concern about the Budget 2015 on October 10 after the 20 cents increase which has brought the price of petrol to RM2.30 per litre.
The PAS Research Centre Director, Dr Dzulkefli Ahmad, said that Putrajaya should gazette the list last August, however they have failed to do so until now.
According to him there are products that were previously taxes the sales and services tax (SST).
He said that Pakatan Rakyat (PR ) remains opposed to the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) because the income of the people is still low.
Taking the example of the income tax charged on the people at a certain income the GST will be implemented on all citizens.
“PR brought up the argument to not allow the GST to be implemented because the GST is a tax that applies to all.
“We (PR) are convinced that it is not the time because the people are stuck with low and moderate incomes.
“(Almost) 1.7 million (people) are eligible to pay the income tax, while those registered are probably three times that number,” he said during the Bicara Harakah ‘Budget 2015, People’s Challenge’.
He said that the increase in oil prices will lead to a chain reaction of increases, thus burdening the people’s cost of living.
The former Kuala Selangor Member of Parliament added that the presentation of the Budget 2015 is the government’s last challenge for the 10th Malaysia Plan (10MP) before moving on to the 11MP.
He said that the 11MP is the plan to build Malaysia into a developed nation in 2020 with the per capita income of per person is USD15,000 or RM48,000 per year.
He added that the economic slowdown in China, the United States financial policy and geopolitic war that is happening is expected to impact the implementation of the Budget 2015.
NS
