YOURSAY | ‘It’s because of high debt that Najib squeezed the people's ‘telur’ with GST.’

Kim Quek: PM Najib Razak, before you get carried away with self-praise for having netted an extra revenue of RM21 billion through the Goods and Services Tax (GST), may I remind you that this money did not fall from heaven.

Every cent of it was squeezed from the hard-earned money of the rakyat - to the extent that every family has to shoulder an additional burden of RM4,200 (RM21 billion divided by five million families).

Coming at a time when prices of goods and services have shot up sky-high, this extra burden is sheer hell for most families.

On the other hand, if your government is clean and efficient, you could easily have saved RM30 billion from the budget by plugging the horrendous leakages caused by rampant corruption, cronyism and wastages, thus dispensing the necessity to indiscriminately raise such massive taxes.

Najib, you can’t fool us by flashing little goodies here and there; we will go for the total solution, and that is, we will remove your ruling coalition altogether come next election.

Hearty Malaysian: It is not how much tax you collected but how you spend the collected tax which should be the measure of success.

Don't boast if you are actually causing more hardship to the people, Najib.

Just Your Normal Rakyat: Is the GST helping our economy or is it just helping our government?

I have yet to see anything major mentioned in Budget 2016 to stimulate economic growth. The BN is proposing tax relief measures but at the same time maintaining the GST and removing subsidies.

It's is just trying to hide the fact that ultimately we the rakyat are the ones who are paying, and not that our economy is the one that is generating revenue for the government to spend.

And how can we effectively talk about the Budget when we still have the RM42 billion debt hanging over heads and the loss of confidence in our PM over his RM2.6 billion ‘donation’ scandal?

SteveOh: A consumption tax billed as the saviour of the economy? This is a world first. The tax does nothing but dampen consumption, which is bad for the economy because of the multiplier effect.

All GST really does is save the government's coffers. Inordinate reliance on oil revenue will see the government scrambling to plug holes in its budget, which has been in deficit for many years in a row now.

Oil prices are heading south and there is oversupply of gas. Petronas will see a significant drop in revenue and the government will have to fund its budget some other way, the GST is a budget saver, not economy booster particularly when something like the 1MDB has sucked money out of the economy.

To portray the GST as the saviour of the economy is baseless. If that is an economy saviour then why not increase the GST when there is an economic downturn?

Many double-digit GST countries face fiscal and economic meltdown. Some think the GST is why the economy is adversely impacted due to lower consumption.

Kawak: This sort of statement from the PM will be able only to bluff the kampung folks and ignorant youths.

While the GST is a more equitable tax system, its benefit is realised only if the money collected is used prudently and without leakages through corrupt practices by the people in power.

The GST has come just in time to save the country from our years of financial mismanagement and the 1MDB fiasco.

SKT10: Mr PM, it just shows how desperate you are to resort to lying to the people on the real purpose of introducing the GST.

We know that the GST is basically used to cover the huge financial holes that you have created through the 1MDB fiasco, the unnecessary wastages in buying the new jet plane mainly for your and your wife’s convenience although you use the royalty’s name to partly justify for this huge expenditure, the millions of ringgit you paid to your sycophants to safeguard your political position as the PM and also as the head of Umno, paying for your cyber troopers’ subscriptions to Malaysiakini and also the substantial payments made to them to defend you online with their horrible and broken English.

I could go on with many more such items but for now the above should suffice.

Justine Gow: Something is terribly wrong with the economy if it needs to be saved by GST. If the wealth of the country has been properly managed, the economy will be just fine - with or without GST.

Najib is 'roti canai bertelur', says BN MP

Gunnerrun: The reason for the implementation of GST is to sustain the increasing spending, especially by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO)

And you missed out on the recent exorbitant toll hikes. This is to enable a very desperate man clutching at his hair ends to maintain a lavish lifestyle.

So this is in fact a ‘telur basi’ tactic and it can only be temporary. If things get worse, GST will be increased, is this what you call bravery?

A wise and prudent PM would have done just the opposite if he is an expert in finance and economics, but the current PM only thinks of surviving every day, this is what you end up with... GST.

Mushiro: According to this Umno 'brain', Mersing MP Abd Latiff Ahmad, the more we are in debt the better.

For 1MDB, we took RM42 billion in debt for which we cannot pay and there are no reasonable assets to show. Now 1MDB is very proud to sell off their government-given land as this is the only choice they have.

Similarly, we incurred a debt, for example, by buying two Scorpenes submarines and overpaid by 40 percent for Mara’s Australian properties.

It was because of this high debt that Najib squeezed the people's ‘telur’ with GST.

Mojo Jojo: The GST is to safeguard country from economic volatility? So are you saying that all countries that implement the GST will be safeguarded from this volatility? What study from which economic journal did you cite when making such a ludicrous claim?

I'll let you in on a little secret. The fastest way of decreasing market volatility in Malaysia is the removal of you lot from all traces of public office, and relegating people of similar calibre to the history books and museums for prehistoric antiquities.

Behsaikong: It is only when these men think they are so smart, clever and witty that they give themselves away and confirm to many of us Malaysians how pathetically silly they are.

That's why many comments in Malaysiakini are trying hard to point out the truth and reality to such people.

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