Diamonds for some, taxes for hoi polloi

Gov’t scraps new GST plan, less than a day after outcry

Anonymous 2460391489930458: Can you imagine the terrible things PM Najib Razak and his team have in store for us after they win GE14?

It’s a good thing this Goods and Services Tax (GST) “slip-up” happened. It’s an early warning of the absolute mayhem that awaits us.

The recent ‘Tourism Tax’ simply couldn’t be held back due to the absolute dire situation of the nation’s financial position. It’s not hard to visualise a slew of new “creative” tax initiatives just waiting to be introduced to raise more and more money. We have been warned.

Doc: Good idea for the BN/Umno government to scrap the plans to subject 60 new food items to the six percent GST from July 1 onwards.

It’s best to wait for the elections to be over, secure another BN mandate for the next five years and then impose GST on everything and anything.

Vijay47: Customs Department director-general T Subromaniam, are you really suggesting that the department would widen the range of items falling under GST without consultation or directions from the Finance Ministry?

But at least the media gave you some useful feedback; I would imagine that your gratitude does not extend to that purveyor of one-sided news.

In a way, I am disappointed. Not that you made a lightning-quick retreat from your proposal but that you have now removed another bird-brained idea that we were enjoying to whack. By the way, do bird-seeds come under GST?

Legit: Subromaniam, the whole thing doesn’t seem right. You make an announcement, the media goes into a frenzy, then you consult the Finance Ministry after which the decision you made earlier is rescinded. Shouldn’t the process work the complete opposite?

You first find out how the measure will affect the consumers and their reaction, then you consult the Finance Ministry (your bosses), then you decide whether to implement it.

Clever Voter: Yes, a sensible thing to make a U-turn. But senseless that this was going to be implemented.

One wonders if the ministers ever thought about earning their own money and spending like every local folk do.

Anonymous #33227154: This shows that our government don’t plan and think properly before implementing anything. Is GST meant to force the people to pay for the massive losses due to the 1MDB?

Hang Babeuf: Sometimes, when you “fly a kite”, it just gets shot down – fast. Here the rapid turnaround proves on thing: that the fiscal crisis of the Umno/BN state is less severe than the legitimacy deficit of the Umno/BN government.

GST for some fresh food items from July 1

CQ Muar: Subromaniam is contradictory in his announcement of the now reversed new items under the GST regime.

Except for coconut oil, there are many essential items commonly consumed by the masses, especially the poor and underprivileged, and there you audaciously claim “…it’s only a few items not consumed by the masses”?

New items you quoted include spinach, long beans, peas, potatoes, sweet corn, grapes and coconut oil, and you failed to include a long host of other undisclosed items.

What is the government’s justification for increasing further the burden of the poor?

Vijay47: Thank you, Mr GST Subromaniam, for informing us members of the “masses” that items such as spinach, long beans and so on are not eaten by us. I suppose for your next act, you will be including Najib’s favourite local vegetable, kangkung.

Shunyata: Up until a minute ago, I had been wrongly assumed myself to be part of the masses, but based on the Malaysian Greengrocer’s Definition of Hierarchical Vegetables, it seems I am part of the upper middle-class.

I have mixed feelings about the upgrade, however, as it may appear that I’d have to relegate myself back to “the masses” now that my favourite spinach, potatoes and corn have joined the Malaysian Greengrocer’s Hall of Fame.

Nil: If I understand how GST works, items like fresh spinach, long beans, peas, potatoes, sweet corn, grapes etc, are non-processed and so are non-value-added. Therefore, they should not be subjected to GST, similar to fresh lobster caught from the sea.

Coconut oil is a processed item and so is subjected to GST (but can be exempted or rated at zero). Can Customs explain this decision?

Blogsmith: Wow, imagine the problem of keeping accounts for GST faced by the fresh food sellers in the fresh food markets, people who previously didn’t have to account for and become GST tax collectors for the Customs Department.

I wonder, if their turnover doesn’t exceed RM500,000, would they still have to register for GST or just pay higher costs for supplies? If it is the latter, then it is the consumers who will have to bear the burden of higher prices passed on to them.

Headhunter: Remember those idiotic ministers who had said that GST would not have an impact on our cost of living? And many actually believed them?

Anonymous_1421806811: Inflation has been known to bring down governments. I always suspect it will be inflation that will bring down BN.

They can fool the people on almost everything, but when it comes to bread and butter, the very people that have so successfully been fooled will go against them. They can’t raise the GST rate, so they widen the goods taxable.

Poor people are not stupid.

P Dev Anand Pillai: Hopefully, this will open the eyes of the people, especially the Malays and Indians who are still carried away if some crumbs come their way.

But then again, knowing Malaysians, they will succumb to some last-minute goodies and still give Umno-BN the majority that they need to hang on to power.

Drifter: Mrs MO1 allegedly gets a RM118 million pink diamond. We get more GST. Thank you kleptocrats, and their supporters.

SusahKes: Seriously, none of you was thinking that they would stop at Tourism Tax, did you?

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