The brewing storm of GST

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Mar 8, 2010

So why is the ruling BN government even contemplating this GST move given the present challenge to its rule by PR since 8 March 2008? Surely they are not suicidal nor do they have a death wish do they?

By romerz

The Malaysian federal government intends to implement a General and Services Tax (GST) by the third quarter of 2011. Now you may ask what is GST and how will it affect you? I wondered too that is why I took the opportunity to attend the GST Forum organized by PR (mentioned in my previous post) and listened to those who provided an opposing view to that of the government’s propaganda through the main stream media.

Let me add a qualifier here first. Before I went to this forum, I was of the opinion that GST is a form of taxation that Malaysia must take one day for the well-being of the country on the long run. However one thought kept bugging me which is corruption and leakages. I kept wondering if it was prudent to raise additional revenues for the government by taxing the length and breadth of Malaysian society (at the expense of those hardest hit – the poor) when the likelihood of these additional revenues may end up wasted or worst still in the pockets of a select few.

Of course I was also looking at it from a selfish point of view as a current taxpayer. Despite knowing that GST is a “good” form of taxation, I was apprehensive of being dealt the double whammy of paying GST and also paying income tax, taxing the poor tired 15% further!

Currently in Malaysia, only 15% of the 12 million workers pay taxes, ie. 1.8 million Malaysians are carrying the burden of supporting 27 million Malaysians. Not that the other 85% of Malaysian workers do not want to pay taxes but the reality is, they don’t earn enough to be taxed – the sad fact of Malaysia being stuck in the middle income trap which experts and even the government realizes.

Ok, now you know where I stood on GST before 8.00 pm today, before I heard YB Tony Pua, YB Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad and En. Rafizi Ramli spoke tonight at the forum moderated by YB Liew Chin Tong.

I will not try to explain what GST is or how it works and how it affects EVERY SINGLE Malaysian as that will take too long. You have to find out yourself and believe me, you better want to find out as this GST thing is going to affect you in more ways than you have been told by the government propaganda machinery which in turn could and most likely will shape the political future of the country which has ramifications on life as we know it in Malaysia. It is that serious!

Think of it this way. Everybody knows whatever form of additional taxation is what most sitting governments would avoid unless it is absolutely necessary because of the backlash from the electorate. Did you know that when Canada introduced GST in 1991, the government was brought down at the following general elections in 1993? The political party who introduced GST in Canada eventually disbanded in 2004!

The simple answer is the country is going BROKE!