Prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has said Malaysia has no plans to reintroduce a goods and services tax (GST) or any other broad-based consumption tax, NST reports. Anwar, who is also finance minister, added that the government will instead focus on cutting subsidies enjoyed by the rich as well as reducing wastage and corruption in his administration to lower the country’s debt.
“What we will implement include the subsidy reduction for the wealthy, such as the electric tariff for the T20 categories,” Anwar said in response to a question from Taiping MP Wong Kah Woh in Parliament yesterday.
“As I have explained before in a previous session (in the Dewan Rakyat), the government has decided to impose subsidy reduction on the T20 categories as well as multinational and large companies, except those dealing with food security even when the previous administration decided to increase the tariff,” he added.
The prime minister noted that government debt and liabilities currently stood at RM1.5 trillion, or about 82% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Anwar said restoring good governance was important, as the spending of money (during the previous administration) was due to poor management and leakages that led to an increase in the country’s debt.
“As the country’s debt is higher than the economic growth, other measures to be taken include reviewing the public expenditure and for the revenue base to expand without burdening the people, particularly in the education, health and basic needs sector,” he explained.
Talk of Malaysia reintroducing GST surfaced last year when previous prime minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob suggested it in an exclusive interview with Nikkei. “We lost RM20 billion in annual revenue when we abolished the GST and replaced it with the old SST. No other country in the world has reverted back from GST to SST, except for Malaysia,” he told the publication at the time.
The GST replaces the sales and service tax (SST) in April 2015 but was then scrapped in favour of bringing back SST in September 2018 when the Pakatan Harapan government took over the reins. We’ve covered the impact of GST on the automotive industry and car prices in the past, which is worth a read to understand the mechanics of both taxation systems.
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GST works. It is proven. GST tax more on the rich income group, as they also tend to spend on luxury items and expensive items. Why average Malaysians cannot understand this easy concept?
the answer is ignorance. Majority of Malaysians are poorly educated. And I dont mean that they are non-graduates. We have a lot of graduates locally, but majority of Rakyat is not properly educated with economics. They wanted instant gratification. Anything that comes into their bank account or wallet instantly, they will choose that. That is the problem. Nobody cares about the big picture. We will remain in this dead-loop of poverty (as a country). PM Anuar knows GST works, but he cannot champion the people (or at least appear so) if he implements GST.
BN has already implemented GST…it was PH who changed it to SST…funny that all developed countries are using GST and we went backward by implementing SST…and the best part is all PH supporters were happy with the idea…
Now BN with PH, BN side can implement GST…
Kroni2 madey takut GST. Ini semua salah PN… Rm300juta berdesup masuk akaun PN Pas
I think the real reason y ppl previously oppose the gst bcoz of 6%. If they can start Gst at 3% , and gradually increase 1% every 3yrs depend on the economic situation, i think the ppl can accept. Need to show the benefit of gst vs sst by educating ppl. Gst is a broad tax scheme that fairly tax every 1. And it also the best way to increase the revenue for the gment.Thks.
yes, it’s in the implementation. But alas, average malaysians are already too misguided that anything that slightly “increase” price of goods, they will go bantah. Social experiment: If you tell an average person that he given 2 choices:
1st choice – take this RM500 now and thats it, or
2nd choice – take nothing now, but in 1 year , he will receive RM1000 along with others in the country.
Most average malaysian will choose choice #1. It’s called instant gratification.
Idea is nice but the problem with Malaysia GST in the past is that the government hardly refund the GST tax back to the business resulting to many price increases at that time.
The elite and rich group will try to fight GST because they are the group affected by it the most. These are the people that spend few thousand ringgit on a daily meal, where the rest of the Rakyat cant even afford a RM5 meal from Mydin. GST helps to target the rich, actually. People need to wake up!
It is a better, “catch-all” tax system that should go with a lower income tax rate.
But the timing is poor now as it will definitely cause another round of inflation. Political suicide
PH was responsible for changing to SST from GST…now they feel so embarass to revert to GST despite realsing the good mechanism of GST…in fact thats how they won the previous election when they lasted for only 22 months
What’s wrong for being rich? Rich works smarter and harder and pay more taxes…GST is nothing to those rich, but impact more on poor
That is the most common response when you ask most average malaysians. I dont blame them. They see only the short-term impact. Paultan isn’t the right place to discuss this. For those interested, go read about how GST really works. How did it benefited countries worldwide. How it helps tax the big spenders, and helps the low income group.
Wonder no more, my dear friend. The reason why Malaysians don’t understand is because their minds have been poisoned by the “ABCD GST” nonsense and now PH, while in power, is too proud to walk back on their mocking of GST previously. Ego takes precedence over national interest, it would seem.
Good strategy.
Let’s make sure PH win the states election first. After that is done, PH can implement back GST.
That’s one of the plan
What plan..they are already the govt and yet they still dont want to implement GST…go figure
Formula songsang plan. PH will never reintroduce GST because they’re too proud and will never want to appear to be swallowing back their own spit.
Imagine you are a parent. You children all lazy to attend school, but you are wiser than them. You know education is important so the children will not stuck in poverty. You send them to school, but the children mogok, wear red shirts and do protest on the streets of KL. So finally, eventho you know education is good for the children, you cannot implement it. That is the scenario in malaysia today. PM Anuar know what is best for the country, but average malaysians (the children) cannot accept it.
We are not stupid.
We PH supporters are the brightest. So no to GST.
Are you sure what you’re talking about…the truth is PH was responsible for changing to SST from GST…now they feel so embarass to revert to GST despite realsing the good mechanism of GST…in fact thats how they won the previous election where they lasted for only 22 months when they preaced upon lower price with SST…
Prices did went down with SST prior to now MCO. In fact those comes after PH after 2020 also did nothing to revert back to GST that’s quite telling.
Please tax the rich and help the poor.
that is why we need GST.
Tapi rakyat bodoh…
Let them be, more idiot, more merrier!
Stay in the cave, there’s natural water and food for you, dont come out, poor man
Huge segment of rakyat don’t care about GST anymore. They have better idea which is EPF withdrawal. You can see more intense pressure from them in weeks to come in anticipation for festive season. Gotta get the new iPhone and sport rims.
anak bini makan nasi putih bersama kicap, no problem! Kereta kena tukar RIM baru, kena tambah spoiler baru, kena tinted dulu. Sigh… PRIORITIES
Hahahaa beli lah spoiler harga rahmah, sport rim rahmah
nak tukar biar yang baik. jangan tukar semata mata nak lawa. nanti bawak anak bini tiba2 rim murah tu retak
and then life lost, just say “siapalah nak lawan takdir tuhan”
Yg harga rahmah, you can find the online listings as “rim second”.. “bodykit second”.. because somehow B40 folks don’t know that the actual term is “second-hand”.
With GST, everyone pays for whatever they purchase or consume while the tax system collects it with transparency.
Right now we have so much leakage as “some” are evading taxes.
Sad to say that GST got politicised for the wrong reasons while we as a nation move backward.
that’s right! You consume, you pay.
But alas most average malaysians have their heads stuck in the ground.
Leakage/loopholes are good. Don’t you think? I like it very dem much. We need to feed (gula2) the rakyat with ‘fear’ as we collect as much money as possible!
Propaganda at its finest!
YOLO
-Benda blh mkn, buat apa share?-
-Dosa? Dhosa? Thosa? Thosai satu anne!-
guess what is the latest loophole in malaysia?
DERMA.
Derma = Pahala
See? Two birds, one stone brother.
Insurance under SST also has 6% service tax.
papa jahat…patut sst pun lenyap kat muka bumi ni