PLANS TO INCREASE RATES’

have the option to increase the GST in the future.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday said this was why the opposition had changed their stance from wanting to abolish GST, to zero-rating it.

In fact, he said in a blog posting, they had actually planned to increase the GST rates.

Najib said the opposition was not brave enough to admit this now because they needed to deceive the people in order to win in the coming general election.

“The opposition knows that the GST would replace the decline in oil revenue.

“Therefore, when they made the U-turn to maintain the tax, their voters were deceived.

“Hence, they (say they want to) hastily decrease the tax from six per cent to zero per cent.

“(This) does not make sense, because what’s the point of implementing the system if no tax is collected?

“Why don’t they just abolish the system?”

Najib said the opposition’s real plan was to dismiss half of the country’s civil servants, teachers, doctors, security personnel and to cancel construction of schools, mosques, roads and hospitals as well as abolish health and basic public services if they took over the government.

Since the collapse in oil prices in 2015, he said, the country’s annual revenue had fallen to about RM40 billion.

With a decreased revenue for the annual budget, Najib said the government was not able to pay the salaries of civil servants, build new schools and hospitals, or fund security forces.

“Thankfully, the GST system was introduced, replacing the Sales and Services Tax.

“Previously, there was a tax, but it was not revealed by some traders, which allowed them to set the rates themselves. The GST informs consumers clearly about the six per cent rate.

“The GST is more systematic, and more than 140 countries in the world have implemented it.

“The system helps to boost the country’s revenue, allowing for the (continuous provision) of public services and preventing our economy from collapsing because of the low oil prices,” he said.