YOURSAY | ‘Introduce GST now to ensure solid revenue for the country.’ 

Rafizi: Govt to explore all fiscal approaches before reintroducing GST

GanMu: Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli’s statement is pathetic. Going through all other measures before re-introducing the goods and services tax (GST) is akin to finding the best solution along a roundabout route. 

Can you imagine, that instead of touching your nose directly with your hand, you prefer to go behind your head to touch it the other way?

With all due respect, as an accountant, he is not spot on. An economist would have given 100 reasons why GST is the answer to increasing revenue.

This reply “We can first tax the rich, be it through luxury goods tax, capital gains tax, subsidy rationalisations, we will do that first” shows that he is testing out the results of this exercise before moving next.

An economist or any expert would have anticipated the results first and would not venture there.

The rich will therefore neither buy luxury goods nor properties here, subsidy rationalisation will not have any effect on them either.

My take is that GST is the way forward. Rafizi will go for GST after a long time, which means a loss of billions in revenue.

Apanama is back: This is “cakap pusing putar belit” (beat around the bush).  

Introduce GST now to ensure the country’s revenue is solid, and we do not lose any revenue if GST is going to be introduced in the future.  

You cannot have a solid revenue taxing the rich.  

Rafizi, you do not know what you are talking about. You are just buying time. In doing so you deprive Malaysia of its revenue.  

Why does the PM need to go without a salary? Why do you people need to go with a 20 percent pay cut? Cutting here and there are populist moves. 

Since the first introduction of a Value Added Tax in France in 1954, it has now been adopted by 175 countries around the world. So 175 countries can’t be wrong. Go and study how GST was introduced in India. Two-thirds of India's population are poor and middle-class. Since you are concerned with the GST’s impact on the poor, study how poor people are exempted from GST in India.

Besides this, there are many examples. I can't write everything here. In short, introduce GST in the coming budget 2025. No populist moves, please.

Hmmmmmmmm: Year in and year out, we keep being told that our economy is doing well. We have oil and gas, palm oil, rubber, timber, and other natural resources.

Yet inflation continues to outstrip our earnings. More and more goods are beyond the reach of people.

The government keeps complaining about not having enough money. The national debt keeps increasing.

The government is busy thinking of ways to tax us more. It is time that the government started analysing what is wrong with what we have been doing and are still doing.

How do we spend our taxes? We spend a large chunk on our civil service, which does not reciprocate by being productive and helping the people in return.

They come up with non-productive policies like policing the taxpayers’ dressing and getting offended when some citizens cannot speak the national language fluently.

We have politicians who ban concerts, alcohol, and so on based solely on their religion. We spend more time on religious classes than other more important subjects.

We ban this business for religious reasons and we put obstacles in other businesses’ way.

We are not particularly interested in enlarging our economic pie unless it fits into our religion.

We are a nation of many lazy people awaiting handouts and subsidies. There are many more things we can point out, but you should be able to extrapolate from here.

We cannot keep on going this way. This is a sure way to lead us into the pits.

You are now in the privileged position of being the government. Please do your national service and reform the system.

Variant: You must be joking, the rich will buy their luxury goods overseas - do you also seriously think that the rich will buy such things?

Luxury goods are aspirational, only the middle and lower classes will want to buy such things.  

Stop trying to pass capital gains tax as taxing the rich.

The rich use family trusts and foundations, and they will never pay any capital gains, unlike the middle class or poor whose greatest asset is their homes, which they pass on to their children.

Yes to subsidy rationalisation. Who would argue against this? This costs the rich a percentage that is far less than the poor or middle class who spend a larger portion of their income on it.  

All these will only squeeze the middle class further, yet they will support this in the name of taxing the rich.

Focusapp: “Memang cakap tak serupa bikin” (say one thing, do another).

Twist and turn. For years, it was “no” to GST. When in government, maybe (means surely if they continue) will be in the future.

No doubt GST is a more efficient tax, but it has a pass-on effect on prices.

But more and more taxes? Why more taxes to burden the rakyat who are already facing low income and cost of living issues? Where are the measures to stem corruption and leakage?

How is it that rakyat’s money lost to these woes can be mitigated or eliminated without any reforms?

The government cannot talk its way out by saying no corruption just because both Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Rafizi say so. Nothing has changed.  

Tax the rich? More like a rhetorical political statement. Digital taxes, goods below RM500, and the removal of subsidies? These will hit the poor through inflation.

Where are the much-awaited and long-overdue measures to reduce the cost of living? How about cutting excise and import taxes on cars gradually each year?

What about going after monopolistic businesses?  Where do the taxes and savings go? Wasteful spending? Bumiputera agenda 2.0? Islamic policing? What about cutting unnecessary spending?

RimauTongkatAli: Rafizi is becoming more like Anwar as the day goes by, a disappointment.

If this is how Rafizi is planning to increase the country’s revenue by introducing more taxes, then, the capital will flow out of Bolehland.

The rich will not just sit idle and let you play Robin Hood.

Why should the rich be punished for funding all the “tongkat” (crutch) policies in this country, Rafizi?

Why don’t you try to remove the tongkat instead and implement a true consumption-based tax like GST?

Existential Turd: The government is like a bucket.

Taxes are like water poured into a bucket. Corruption, nepotism, cronyism, incompetence, mismanagement, bailouts, handouts, direct-negotiation tendering system, bloated religious and governmental offices, inefficient public services, and so on are the holes in the bucket.

Plug those holes, and you wouldn’t need to raise taxes. The talk about GST is moot. The larger problem is not how best to collect taxes.

RainbowHuman1963: Subsidy rationalisation, luxury goods or other consumption taxes? Yes. Capital gains tax?

Be careful about giving people less incentives to invest here.

The ringgit is hardly an attractive currency to hold one’s investments in based on its past performance.

Pink: GST, the most efficient tax system, is the last resort, instead of the first choice of this stupid government.

The 147 countries that have implemented some form of value-added tax are laughing at Malaysia. Rafizi is an embarrassment.

Mueller: The fact the rakyat has to bail the government out with more taxes has always irked me.

Losses are made public burdens while politicians make public wealth private.

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