MCA wants 6pct GST rate to be kept for five years
Supporting the just-announced Goods and Services Tax (GST), the MCA has urged the government to keep the rate at six percent rate for at least five years in order to be fair to consumers.
Supporting the just-announced Goods and Services Tax (GST), the MCA has urged the government to keep the rate at six percent rate for at least five years in order to be fair to consumers.
The MCA welcomes the implementation of the GST as this will broaden the country's tax base, party president Dr Chua Soi Lek (left) said today.
"However, MCA would like to propose that the six percent (rate) be maintained for at least five years or more from the date of implementation," Chua told a press conference at Wisma MCA after chairing a central committee meeting.
The government, he added, should also ensure that personal and corporate income taxes are gradually reduced to lessen the burden on the people.
The much-criticised GST was announced by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also finance minister, when he tabled Budget 2014 on Oct 25. It is to be implemented on April 1, 2015.
On the issue of MCA not joining the cabinet, Chua said that the resolution would not be brought to the upcoming party polls in December, which was meant to elect the new central committee (CC) members.
However, he did not rule out the possibility the new CC members would raise the resolution again next year, saying that it was up to the new party leadership to decide.
After the EGM on Oct 20, the party central delegates voted in favour of two of the four resolutions, permitting the party to accept other positions such as senatorships, positions in government-linked companies (GLCs), state government positions and village head positions.
To this, Chua said the qualified MCA leaders would only be appointed to hold the posts of state executive councillor and senators at the earliest by next year.
“This is because many states will be holding their last assembly session soon, and we are lacking time to arrange this,” he explained.
On Chinese secondary schools allocation, Chua had urged the government to have institutional allocations for the 81 schools nationwide.
Similar to the previous years’ budget, the Chinese secondary schools are again being left out, not getting a single sen from the government.
“We think that for the 81 secondary schools, the government should allocate at least RM20 million every year,” he said, adding that he would officially propose this to Najib.
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