DAP urges Putrajaya to postpone GST to deal with floods
With time needed to recover from flood disasters around Malaysia, Putrajaya should defer the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) that is to take effect on April 1, the DAP said.
Its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said while the country dealt with a major natural disaster that will cost billions of ringgit in aid and rebuilding, the GST should be postponed to "avoid an economic disaster for the 14.1 million labour force".
"For the 14.1 million labour workforce with 13.7 million employed and 378,000 unemployed, Barisan Nasional’s claims that the mean monthly gross household income has increased by an annual rate of 8.4% to RM5,919 in 2014 from RM5,000 in 2012 is an empty and meaningless announcement.
"A more accurate measure is that the median income for the bottom 40% of households increased 11.2% to RM2,312 in 2014 from RM1,847 in 2012," he said in a statement today.
Lim, who is also Penang chief minister and Bagan MP said a deferment of the GST was important to reduce the financial burden of ordinary Malaysian families, who would be hit by inflation and higher living costs.
Lim also reiterated the DAP's call for the federal government to declare a state of emergency for the floods which began before Christmas and have displaced almost a quarter of a million people in several states. The floods would also cost the government financial losses worth billions of ringgit.
Declaring a state of emergency in the affected areas was necessary to expedite rescue, recovery and restoration efforts, he said.
"The Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government is behaving irresponsibly and mala fide by relying on ridiculous, invalid and baseless excuses that declaring a state of emergency would adversely affect those insured, by preventing the hundreds of thousands of flood victims from filing for insurance claims. This is not true.
"There is no reason why a state of emergency can not be declared when a haze emergency was declared in parts of Malaysia in 2005 and 2013? Is haze a bigger threat than floods?" he said in a statement today.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was reported saying a state of emergency would result in insurance companies not paying out compensation to flood victims, but this has been clarified as untrue by opposition politicians and insurance bodies.
On postponing the implementation of the GST, Lim said data from the Performance Management Delivery Unit (Pemandu) showed that about 80% of households in Malaysia were still earning less than RM4,000 a month.
"The problem is that the rise in income has not caught up with rising costs of living in Malaysia. This is why we have recorded the second highest personal household debt in Asia of 87% of GDP (gross development product)," he said.
In his New Year statement, Lim also said Malaysia must focus on moderation, generate prosperity by stressing on excellence and competence, and ensure socio-economic justice.
He said the politics of government should be about generating good and creative ideas for a brighter future, and not be limited to winning elections. – January 1, 2015.
