An aide to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has criticised Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin over the latter's remarks on the goods and services tax (GST).

Rizal Mansor accused the former deputy prime minister of being a “forked tongue hypocrite”.

He recalled that when Muhyiddin was a member of the cabinet, he had remarked that GST was better than the sales and services tax (SST).

“When he was DPM (deputy prime minister), Muhyiddin said that countries poorer than Malaysia also had GST because it is an efficient taxation system.

“Today, the same person wants to abolish the GST on the grounds that it burdens the people.

“My question is whether Muhyiddin would still consider GST to be good if he remained as DPM and this changed after he was sacked from Umno?” he asked in a statement.

Based on this, Rizal claimed that Muhyiddin cannot be trusted because he makes contradictory statements to suit his political interests.

In 2013, Muhyiddin, who was then still deputy prime minister, had maintained that the six percent GST rate was low.

“There are almost 160 countries that have the GST and this includes poorer countries. Only Malaysia has not implemented it and I think it is time that we roll out this system.

“This is the right thing to do,” Muhyiddin has said then.

He also insisted that the GST would not burden the lower income group as the government would implement measures, such as increasing BR1M and slashing income tax, to offset the rise in goods prices.

Najib had dropped Muhyiddin from the cabinet in 2015.