No reintroduction of GST by federal govt – Chong

KUCHING: The federal government has no plans to reintroduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST), says Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Chong Chieng Jen.

Speaking at a press conference here yesterday, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) Sarawak chairman said he had checked with the Ministry of Finance (MoF), which confirmed that there would be no reintroduction of such tax.

“But being a government that listens to the people, if there’s a strong request to reintroduce GST, then I think may be the people are ready (for GST).

“I’ve read the (recent) statement from (Prime Minister) Tun M ( Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad), who said if there was such a request, then the government would have to study.

“So far, I’m quite certain that there is no such strong request from the people to reintroduce the GST – I’ve checked with the MoF,” he told reporters at the Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak headquarters here.

The Stampin MP reiterated that the government would consider bringing back GST only if there was a strong request from the grassroots.

“Do you want GST to be (re)introduced? So far, there’s no such request, so this issue does not arise.”

On the government recording a RM23-billion reduction in tax revenue collection following the abolishment of GST, which was replaced by the Sales and Services Tax (SST), Chong said: “This is because the people are paying less tax.”

He explained that when the people paid less tax under SST, the government was bound to see lower tax revenue collection.

“Tax revenue under SST is lower, but that’s what the people want. Do you want to pay more tax? I don’t think so. The cost of living is high and (some) people are (barely) making ends meet.”

Chong said he was positive that almost all PH MPs had no intention to reintroduce the GST.

On Thursday, Dr Mahathir was quoted by Bernama as saying that the government would study the need to reintroduce GST if that was what the people wanted.

“If the people believe GST is better, we will study. We will study whether it ( GST) is better than SST,” he said in Putrajaya.

The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, on Tuesday, urged the government to reintroduce the GST in the national Budget 2020 at a lower rate of three per cent.

The national Budget 2020 is scheduled to be tabled in Parliament next Friday ( Oct 11).

GST was enforced on April 1, 2015 at six per cent, but was replaced with SST effective Sept 1 last year.