Minister: No guarantee there won't be post-GST price hike

VIDEO | 0:56 mins

The government cannot guarantee that there will not be a surge in consumer prices if the goods and services tax (GST) is implemented, a minister said.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Hasan Malek (right) said that this is because there are “no guarantees in this world”.

“There are no guarantees in this world... For the time being, we can only pray for a good outcome,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

He also urged all to wait for Budget 2014 to be tabled before speculating on whether the GST will be implemented.

Yesterday, Bernama reported that GST will lead to cheaper goods as it is likely to be introduced at four percent which is lower that the sales and service taxes narrowly applied at 10 and five percent respectively.

 'GST at six percent'

However, in a separate press conference Pakatan Rakyat MPs said that GST is likely to be introduced at higher than four percent as otherwise the cost of implementation is higher than tax revenue.

"As such we expect the GST to introduced at about six percent," PKR's Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen (left) said.

He also said that there has not yet been any commitment by the government that it will replace the sales and service taxes, or that income taxes will be cut in tandem.

PKR's Batu MP Tian Chua yesterday also questioned why a carpark operator contracted by the Kuala Lumpur City Council is already charging GST.

To this, Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism secretary general Saripuddin Kasim, who flanked Hasan today, said what was charged was actually sales and service taxes and not the GST.

Hasan also urged the opposition not to "politicise" such matters and report any suspected wrongdoing to the ministry to be investigated.

On the separate matter, he said that the ministry will monitor the prices of 14 controlled items over the Deepavali period, from Oct 28 to Nov 11.