GOODS AND SERVICES TAX (GST)

IMPLEMENTATION of the goods and services tax (GST) system from April 1, in the past received a number of negative reactions from the people of this country.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar in a statement issued six observations and enlightenment on the implementation of the tax which is allegedly still politicized by some quarters.

The first enlightenment, the 6 percent GST replaces 10 percent sales tax and 6 percent service tax, which is not an additional tax.

To mitigate the impact of rising prices on goods to the people, the Government has expanded the list of zero-rated or excluded basic items from GST.

Observation of Peraktoday.com.my is on the other hand when prices of goods including food are not down until consumers become confused with this GST approach.

According to Wahid, based on the Finance Ministry, the GST's impact on the inflation rate is an increase of 1.1 per cent and the average inflation rate for 2015 is expected to be around 3 per cent which is an affordable rate and among the lowest rates in the region.

"Not all prices of goods and services will rise. Some even dropped as the car prices dropped by 2 to 3 percent and Proton lowered the price by up to RM1,475 per unit while Honda ranged from RM500 to RM2,500 per unit, "he said.

The government also said it has announced "offsetting" measures such as reducing personal income tax by 1 to 3 percent, reducing corporate income tax from 25 percent to 24 percent and reducing tax from small and medium enterprises from 20 percent to 19 percent.

The solution, the BR1M total was raised to RM950 and RM750 respectively and for single individuals earning RM2,000 and below, BR1M was raised to RM350.

This is all clear, aimed at easing the impact of rising prices on goods.

But the situation is now contrary to the fact that there is still a vendor who complains is not given enough time to make GST inventory and the people themselves are still wrong.

Wahid added that the time given for 17 months after the announcement of the implementation of the GST was made for all parties willing to deal with it was reasonable and sufficient.

He said the parties were still unprepared, most of whom only took a stalemate at the start.

"There are also deliberately expecting the GST to not be implemented because with the tax, it is more difficult to avoid paying income tax," he said.

Clearly, the Government has provided legal channels to clarify the tax-related issues that will be implemented.

"The government has created a GST hotline for the Customs Department at 1300 888 500 and KPDNKK at 1300 886 800 and the gst.customs.gov.my website for the public to get more information.

"The original purpose of the GST implementation is to expand the tax base of the country as there are only 2 million taxpayers.

"It is a small number compared to the number of Malaysians of 28 million," Wahid said again.

He said the GST was the consumption or indirect tax where those who spend more were more than those who earn more.

"This is also in line with fiscal consolidation measures targeting a balanced budget by 2020.

"With the Government's revenue increase, we can not only reduce the fiscal deficit but also implement many of the previously delayed development projects including road construction, bridge, school, hospital and clinic," Wahid said.

In the implementation of any new system, he said, there will be issues in teething problems at the initial stage of implementation.

"There's no perfect system because there's a weakness.

"At any rate, our intentions are pure ... InsyaAllah what we aspire to achieve," he added.

He called on all parties to work together to make the new tax system introduced.