It’s not about paying GST, but about curbing graft
YOURSAY ‘Detaining those asking questions is not going to make them go away.’
Cops detain 82 anti-GST activists
Anonymous#007: This is what happens when the irresponsible finance minister and Umno/BN government refuses to properly debate the goods and services tax (GST) bill in Parliament with opposition lawmakers.
Contrary to belief, the opposition has an important task in Parliament to ensure all bills to be passed is debated throughly.
Why not blanket coverage like other countries that have implemented GST? The numerous exemptions and zero-rated items subsequently created by Umno have been alleged to be decisions to please certain voters.
They also leave room for corruption in an already tainted Customs Department. Remember the Customs Department officer who died while at Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) office to help with investigations?
Lone_Star: So many, many, many pertinent GST questions. The implementation of GST is just one week away. The Customs should have all the answers to these pertinent questions at its fingertips.
Detaining those asking questions is not going to make them go away. Questions require answers.
Gunnerrun: It doesn't matter if I have not enough money and now with the GST being implemented, it will make my family situation even tighter.
It doesn't matter because I am a brave police officer, just doing my job for the country arresting these men and women who are probably in the same boat as me. But as the officer of the law, I stand proud doing what I do best, even deep inside my family is hurting bad.
I must put up a brave front especially for my ‘tuans’ who have promised our ‘ketuanan’ philosophy will live till the end of time.
SteveOh: In Australia and New Zealand, the respective governments spent time, effort and money to educate the people on the GST before it took effect.
There were GST hotlines and public accountants also got in the act of advising the public. The media gave comprehensive details on what and what were not exempted from the GST.
The governments of both countries went to great lengths to inform businesses and the public and government ministers went on TV talk shows to answer questions from journalists and panel experts.
In Malaysia, what has the government done to educate the public on the GST? Why can't the Customs director-general meet the group later at a Q&A session for the public?
These people are legitimately seeking answers and why can't simple questions be simply answered? It looks like a serious dereliction of duty.
Yaa Lorrrr: GST is a broad-based consumption tax covering all sectors of the economy, i.e all goods and services made in Malaysia including imports, except specific goods and services which are categorised under zero-rated supply and exempt supply orders as determined by the Finance Ministry and published in the Gazette.
The basic fundamental of GST is its self-policing features which allow businesses to claim their input tax credit by way of automatic deduction in their accounting system.
This eases the administrative procedures on the part of businesses and the government. Thus, the government's delivery system will be further enhanced.
Coleman_Cut: GST is levied on the supply of goods and services at each stages of the supply chain - from the supplier up to the retail stage of the distribution.
Even though GST is imposed at each level of the supply chain, the tax element does not become part of the cost of the product because GST paid on the business inputs is reclaimable.
GST is to be levied and charged at the proposed rate of 6 percent on the value of the supply. GST can be levied and charged only of businesses registered under GST. A business is not liable to be registered if its annual turnover of taxable supplies does not reach the prescribed threshold.
Therefore, such businesses cannot charge and collect GST on the supply of goods and services made to their customers. Nevertheless, businesses can apply to be registered voluntarily.
Anonymous_1403851580: Rather than asking all the questions, tell the BN government to collect GST and distribute the new income to all senior citizens RM500 monthly.
This is a win-win situation, it doesn’t disrupt government effort to increase income, but make sure the income is equally distributed among the poor irrespective of religion and race.
The reason why the government has to implement GST is because many businesses which are doing well are not paying tax and the poor wage earner salary is deducted for tax even before they settle their credit card bills.
After GST is implemented, no race can claim only they are paying tax and their money cannot be used to assist others.
Commentable: What do you know? There are people who can't wait to pay GST and find GST the best tax in the world. It is so good that the public should just accept it with no questions asked.
Take lobsters for instance, who cares whether it is taxed or not? After all, no plain Joe or plain Jane in the street will ever want to consume it. It is pretty much tasteless and quite unlike the little shrimps that we get from the stinking market, right?
So yes, put these useless troublemakers into the slammer for they only represent a small minority. The majority, forming the rest of the public, could very well afford the small six percent tax.
Never mind that fares for taxis and public transport are going sky high, so too for a myriad of goods and services that plain Joe or plain Jane are going to consume daily. They are going to get used to it sooner or later.
JD Lovrenciear: Lobsters no GST; the poor villagers' humble sardines fall under the hammer of GST. Why?
So, PM Najib Razak, can we fault the rakyat for saying that you as their prime minister have dumped the very purpose why they accepted you as the nation's No 1 leader?
Kangkung: How can you all ever challenge Umno's leader's project to squeeze the rakyat dry to pay off his ever increasing expenditure like getting a new RM465 million private jet plus the RM28 million to upgrade it?
Anonymous_1417690214: I am so proud of these activists. Good work all of you. You are putting the pressure on the government. But our PM does not open his mouth at all.
Avatar_2397: Hudud cannot question. GST cannot question. What can be questioned?
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