GST stand-off: Activists storm customs office 

 Swipenter: My wife runs a small business with annual turnover below of RM500,000 yet the Customs Department insisted that she must register or else be fined RM15,000 for non-compliance.

She can apply to de-register after two years if her turnover is still below RM500,000. In the meantime, because she has registered she has no choice but to charge her clients the six percent goods and services tax (GST) and forward the GST to the Customs Department come April 1, 2015.

Isn’t this akin to legalised daylight robbery when her clients need not pay the GST in the first place?

What happens to the GST collected and forwarded to the Custom Department during this  two years’ period then?

Assuming the Custom Department refunds the GST collected, she has to trace every purchaser over this two-year period and start calling her clients one by one to do the refund?

This so ridiculous, and she is not alone on this issue.

Pputeh: Believe me, I, too, am at a loss about the GST.

I had a thosai and chapatti with my wife on Saturday night. The shop said they were getting ready for GST and was having a ‘dry’ run.

Customs director-general, can you tell us if food establishments like these that sell coffee, tea, thosai, chappati and roti canai are subjected to GST?

Hopeless Govt: You are not going get any answers as the Customs people have no clue. I had some basic questions for my business as well, and I’m still waiting for their answers.

RakyatBiasa: Way to go PSM and secretary-general S Arutchelvan. We, the honest and ordinary rakyat who earn a decent living are with you. Thank you for bringing our voice to the Customs Department. Reject GST, reject BN.

Bakun Dam: GST may cause a spike in consumer prices in the short term due to businesses taking advantage of the new indirect tax, but in the long term, it will benefit the country. So it goes to the country’s future economic development.

Vking: The public should not have any fear over GST. Firstly it’s a form of consumption tax which has been implemented by more than 160 countries in the world whether they are of a developed, developing or least developed status.
For your information, GST replaces the existing consumption tax (SST) which is less effective, efficient, transparent and business friendly.

Eagle: How do you prove that GST is better than the sales and service tax (SST)? If so, can you lay out your facts and figures? It’s said that GST is better but nobody, not even the Customs Department, has been able to convince us.

How much more income will it generate over SST? How much more trouble do traders and the public have to put up with?

Damntlwbn: Previously, insurance premiums are not taxed but now six percent is imposed on my medical premium of RM2,500.

Previously, I have to pay service tax if I go eat at a restaurant or stay in a hotel but now, I have to pay six percent tax on practically everything.

People of Selangor: For your information, all businesses are just getting ready to increase their prices.

As far as I see none of them planning to lower prices when GST is implemented on April 1. Only stupid consumers think that prices will come down.

We fully support this move by the protestors. May be we should all be more aggressive. Malaysians are angry about the GST but the government just doesn’t listen.

Raikalqashah: Seriously, storming a Customs office and wanting to stay there overnight and demanding that the Customs director-general answer 106 written questions on the spot is quite unreasonable.

RakyatBiasa: Please check the Customs’ GST list. Even Ajinomoto, vinegar, biscuits, instant noodles, soya sauce, margarine, cooking oil, Milo, Ovaltine, Nescafe, chilli sauce, tomato sauce, evaporated milk and condensed milk are charged GST and the list goes on.

How are the poor rakyat going to survive? Please have a heart at least for the poor kampung folk who voted for Umno.

Loveforpeace: The rakyat must understand their responsibility to pay the tax. Meager tax collection hampers the government a lot and eventually the people would be badly affected with no world-class facilities.

Tommy: Please ask yourself, why is GST needed when our country is resource rich? Where has all the money gone to? Why are there so many small businesses closing shop?

I know a few small and medium-scale developers who are closing shop this month due to the uncertainty of GST. What will happen to their staff?

Sa Tombs: Next time when the activists go to protest, just add to their list of demands that police wages should be increased five folds. Then we watch the fun.

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