NURUL IZZAH: PAKATAN WILL NOT ABOLISH GST IF IT COMES TO POWER
It will not continue with the current ‘high’ percentage, says Nurul Izzah
PAKATAN Harapan will not abolish the Goods and Services Tax (GST) if it comes into power in the 14th General Election. Instead, PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar said Pakatan would not continue with the current “high” percentage.
“We are mindful of the hardship faced by the people.
“We will not impose such a high percentage and further burden the people,” she said in her speech during a ceramah organised by Penang Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM).
Present was PPBM chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
This marks an about-turn by the opposition coalition, which had stressed that it would remove the GST if it was to take over Putrajaya.
Pakatan had even organised an anti-GST rally in Kuala Lumpur last April.
In January, DAP secretary-general Lim Kit Siang was quoted as saying that the opposition would scrap the GST if it was to assume control of the Federal Government.
Opposition leader Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had in 2015 also proposed that the coalition would abolish the GST in its Alternative Budget for 2016.
Dr Mahathir, at PPBM’s launch early this year, had also declared that should the opposition win the general election, the GST would be abolished gradually and replaced with a sales tax “according to the people’s will”.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said last month that the implementation of GST had strengthened the economy and prevented the ringgit from further weakening.
He was quoted as saying that without GST, the country’s deficit “would be at six per cent or seven per cent, instead of the existing 3.5 per cent.
Najib had also said that even though there were parties which criticised and protested against its implementation, GST had saved the country, allowed development to take place and the wellbeing of the people to be looked after.
GST, which was implemented in April 2015, is fixed at six per cent.
It replaced the Sales and Services Tax (SST) of up to 10 per cent.