Consumer association welcomes zero-rated GST

KUCHING: The Consumer Voice Association Sarawak (Covas) has welcomed the Pakatan Harapan ( PH) federal government’s move to zero rate the goods and services tax (GST) from June 1.

When contacted yesterday, Covas president Michael Tiong said the move should bring down the prices of most goods and services, resulting in higher purchasing power.

“In the short term, people view it as a reduction of price of goods on most of the consumer goods, eventually will reduce the cost of living, and lighten the burden on daily expenses for the medium-low income group, and again it also depends on the lifestyle, needs, and wants of the spender,” he said.

“For smart consumers, this initiative actually indicates one of the ways to turn hard- earned money into savings or for other purposes.”

He explained that the move would affect the supply chain.

“I believe there will be less and less layers of cost being transferred to the end-user. Thus consumers will buy at a cheaper and affordable price,” he said.

Tiong called on the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co- operatives and Consumerism to ensure businesses comply with the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011.

“Before a new policy, directive or rule such as this, which is yet to be reinforced, profiteering activities will always occur everywhere among errant traders,” he said.

Tiong also predicted that businesses would actually benefit due to an increase of purchasing power.

“Take for example the previous spending in a specific area was RM50 million including GST. Without GST, there is an extra of RM3 million in consumers’ hands. If they spend, it will go into different businesses in that area. In general, domestic spending will increase,” he said.

Tiong also suggested consumers start to list down items or services they used daily to work out their spending.