GST not main cause of rising living cost — Covas

KUCHING: Sarawak Consumer Voice Association ( COVAS), in expecting that the rising cost of living will be given attention during the Budget 2018 tabling on Friday, however rejected claims by certain parties that the Goods and Services Tax ( GST) is the main cause of the hike.

Its vice president Philip Ng said many evidence could be put forward in rejecting the claims with the strongest argument being commonly known was that food prices were not subjected to GST.

But as a consumer association, we are also sharing the issue relating to the rising cost of goods being felt by the people daily, we hope the budget will list the measures to address it.

He said the rising costs could be felt globally at present due to various factors and Malaysia was no exception as the country also imported food from outside and to put the blame on GST for the rising food prices was inaccurate.

“But as a consumer association, we are also sharing the issue relating to the rising cost of goods being felt by the people daily, we hope the budget will list the measures to address it,” he said when contacted by Bernama here yesterday.

He said the GST had been implemented since 2015, so to continue to blame the tax as the cause of rising prices after more than two years was not correct as the rate of GST had not been raised since then.

Ng said what was happening was that traders took advantage of the imposition of GST by six per cent to raise prices.

He also said the actual price hike was in the aspect of the people’s lifestyle cost which was used fully by traders to raise prices of goods to reap profits.

“The easiest reason for these traders to raise prices of goods based on public demand is to blame GST,” he added. — Bernama

Philip Ng, Sarawak Consumer Voice Association (COVAS) vice president