Lisa J. Ariffin
\nOctober 17, 2013
\nFree Malaysia Today<\/p>\n
Opposition believes the government should first address issues related to corruption and ill spending rather than rush into implementing GST that will further burden the poor<\/p>\n
PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Rakyat has urged Putrajaya to consider structural reforms to address current weaknesses in the economy instead of rushing into implementing the much-debated goods and services tax (GST).<\/p>\n
\u201cSomething as major as the implementation of GST must be brought down to the average consumer and debated in parliament in order to get a full standing,\u201d Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah said during the forum \u201cGST: Cure or Addiction\u201d hosted by Pakatan last night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI urge the people to write to the Prime Minister and their respective MPs to highlight this issue\u2026 that before they proceed with implementing GST, they must not only ensure proper consultation but also punish corrupt ministers and their relevant ministries.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen only they can go to the people and ask for their money,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Nurul was referring to the recent Auditor-General\u2019s (AG) report which revealed leakages in government spending totaling up to RM6.5 billion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my opinion, the prevalence of corruption is likely to make incidences of tax reforms more inevitable,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very important to understand the ramification, and that not all justifications made by the government on GST are true. This is something to be considered seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cGST is regressive. Evidence has shown that the higher you earn, the less you pay. The people from the middle-income group will have to pay more compared to the higher income group,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
Nurul reiterated the need of proper disclosure on GST, \u201cso that in the end we can choose the best sort of policy that can benefit everyone\u201d.
\n\u201cWhat kind of government can be so shameless to tax the people wholesale when they have blatantly stolen our money as shown in the AG\u2019s report?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe position taken by Pakatan is that before we embark on any taxation policy, we will consider the state of economy, what to do to eradicate corruption and prevent leakages,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She then cautioned the public to accept the government\u2019s announcements on GST with a pinch of salt.<\/p>\n
\u201cTake whatever announcement made by the government with caution. Even a cursory glance on the government\u2019s website does not provide necessary information for the people to prepare themselves for the effect of the economic downturn,\u201d Nurul added.<\/p>\n
Increase incomes, not taxes<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua said the government should focus on elevating workers\u2019 incomes instead of increasing taxes. \u201cFor the past 10 to 15 years, these peoples\u2019 income has remain stagnant, below RM2,500,\u201d he claimed.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead of working out policies to raise the income of these people, so they can pay taxes, the government is saying \u2018the poor can\u2019t get richer so let\u2019s start taxing the poor\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cGST means the poorer you are, the harder you get hit. That is regressive tax.\u201d<\/p>\n In August, Finance Ministry secretary-general of Treasury Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah announced that the government was working to include the long-delayed consumption tax in the upcoming Budget 2014 for it to be introduced by 2015; adding that GST is \u201cno longer an option\u201d.<\/p>\n Source: Lisa J. Ariffin October 17, 2013 Free Malaysia Today Opposition believes the government should first address issues related to corruption and ill spending rather than…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1877,930],"tags":[86,85,1422,136,116,88,55,38,104,646,178,53],"class_list":{"0":"post-5486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-gst","7":"category-penerbitan","8":"tag-barisan-nasional","9":"tag-bn","10":"tag-gst","11":"tag-keadilan","12":"tag-kl","13":"tag-kuala-lumpur","14":"tag-lembah-pantai","15":"tag-malaysia","16":"tag-nurul-izzah","17":"tag-nurul-izzah-anwar","18":"tag-pakatan","19":"tag-pakatan-rakyat"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nurulizzah.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nurulizzah.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nurulizzah.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nurulizzah.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nurulizzah.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nurulizzah.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5487,"href":"https:\/\/www.nurulizzah.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5486\/revisions\/5487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nurulizzah.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nurulizzah.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nurulizzah.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cThe real problem is that 85% of people don\u2019t earn enough to pay taxes,\u201d Pua said, pointing out that only 15% of Malaysian workers earn enough to pay taxes.<\/p>\n
\nhttp:\/\/www.freemalaysiatoday.com\/category\/nation\/2013\/10\/17\/gst-is-regressive-for-nation-says-pakatan\/<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"