What have you done to help M'sians tackle rising cost of living, Putrajaya asked

KUCHING: Social activist Voon Shiak Ni has questioned the government on what has been done to help Malaysian stackle the rising cost of living.

She says the decline in purchasing power due to the weakening of the ringgit has not only affected the low-income group (B40) but also the middle-income group (M40).

“What are the measures taken or to be taken by the Madani government to ease the cost of living which keeps spiraling?

“With the increase of the service tax rate from six to eight per cent effective March 1 this year, we are seeing another surge in the prices of goods and food commodities,” she said in a statement yesterday.

Voon noted that the Finance Ministry had stated that the new tax system should generate an estimated additional revenue of RM3 billion for the development of public infrastructure and improvement of welfare assistance of the poor households in the country.

She, however, opined that specific measures to reduce inflation and address the weakening ringgit would be more effective to contain the rising cost of living.

According to her, the increase in taxes would further burden the people, resulting in further price hikes for almost everything.

She said this was because the costs of production due to increase in taxes would be passed down to consumers via increase in prices of the goods.

“This Ramadan, we can see the price differences in the food sold at bazaars, and netizens have commented on the price hike. We cannot blame them (sellers) for the price hike as the costs for the food items have increased,” she said.

“Gone are the days when consumers could spend RM1 for three pieces of ‘goreng pisang goreng' (banana fritters) and RM2 for a packet of regular nasi lemak.”

Voon feared that the cost of living would continue to surge in light of the depreciated ringgit.

She also said the call for an increase in minimum wage would not reverse the spiraling cost of living, but on the contrary, it could trigger another round of price hike due to increase in labour costs.

“While it is imperative for the government to increase the national revenue, it is of equal importance to look into some measures to help people cushion the impact of rising cost of living,” she said.

In this regard, Voon hoped that the federal government would gather feedback from stakeholders and the grassroots to formulate positive and accurate measures to address the issue of escalating cost of living as well as ease the burden of the people.