Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan missed the point. Yes, GST (Goods and Services Tax) is only one of the means deployed by governments in many parts of world to raise revenue.
And yes, many countries adopt GST. But that is not the point. The point is: at 15.5% of 2012 GDP, the direct and indirect taxes levied by the government are already burdensome on the people.
At this tax rate, it was already higher than that levied by the governments of Indonesia (12%), Taiwan (12%), Hong Kong (13%) and Singapore (14.2%) over the same period.
Another point is: much of these taxes raised by the sitting government were misallocated and used to fund largesse and leakages.
Saying that "(GST) will not be imposed on basic food items such as rice, sugar, salt, flour and cooking oil" is either a hypocrisy or an insult to the intelligence of the people.
What about value-added products that has in them rice, sugar, salt, flour and cooking oil as part of the ingredients? Is the government proposing to reverse out these constituents from the retail selling price of these finished products in the computation of GST?
And are you sure the taxed money will go back to us? I am sure you will continue practicing "what is yours is mine and what is mine is mine".
AND UMNO BARU AND UTUSAN ARE STILL WONDERING WHY THE PEOPLE ARE NO LONGER VOTING FOR THEM. THEY MUST BE MORE STUPID THAN WE THOUGHT.
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