Mydin boss: Harapan making a big mistake by abolishing GST
INTERVIEW | Ameer Ali Mydin, the managing director of hypermarket chain Mydin, said the new Pakatan Harapan government is making a "big mistake" by abolishing the goods and services tax (GST) in favour of the sales and services tax (SST).
He said the GST system is more efficient and has fewer loopholes compared to the SST.
As a businessperson, Ameer was of the view that Harapan would be better off reducing the GST rate...
INTERVIEW | Ameer Ali Mydin, the managing director of hypermarket chain Mydin, said the new Pakatan Harapan government is making a "big mistake" by abolishing the goods and services tax (GST) in favour of the sales and services tax (SST).
He said the GST system is more efficient and has fewer loopholes compared to the SST.
As a businessperson, Ameer was of the view that Harapan would be better off reducing the GST rate.
"For example, bring it down to two to three percent instead of six percent," he told Malaysiakini in an interview.
However, Ameer conceded that this was unlikely to happen as Harapan had promised to abolish the GST.
"I feel the government is making a big mistake. It's a mistake, it's due to ego because they are politicians.
"They have made a promise so they have to fulfil (it) or the people will get angry – that is the problem," he said.
Ameer said by reducing the GST rate instead of replacing it with SST, this could save businesses the hassle of changing their existing systems which have been paid for.
Putrajaya is expected to replace the GST system with SST beginning September if it is approved by Parliament.
The Customs Department has indicated that only 6,400 goods will be imposed with SST compared to 11,197 items under GST.
Ameer said for items that will be imposed with the SST at a rate of five percent, the final price will be similar to GST and if it is imposed at 10 percent, it could be higher than GST.
"If (it is) five percent, there won't be much difference if the government imposes SST or GST. The price will be similar.
"If 10 percent SST is imposed, items would be more expensive. So we can't say that prices won't go up," he said.
Ameer also urged the government to expedite publishing the list of manufactured goods that will be imposed with five percent or 10 percent SST.
"There's only a month left before September. We are going to order our goods and need to fix prices,” he said.
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