Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is ignorant to assume house prices will drop due to the sales and services tax (SST) exemption, said MCA Youth.

“Lim lacks basic common sense when he assumes that the SST exemptions, which the Pakatan Harapan federal government will give for construction services and certain building materials, will see house prices being lowered.

“He must be in dreamland, or trying to manipulate prospective housebuyers, as he fails to understand that simply exempting construction services, sand, iron and cement from SST will solve the problem,” MCA Youth vice-chairperson Nicole Wong Siaw Ting said in a statement today.

This belief shows that Lim has little knowledge or “none at all”, she said, but he tries to act “self-righteous” and misleads the public anyway.

Wong pointed out there are locals who purchase properties purely for investment purposes and these will drive property prices up, instead of decreasing it.

Bank Negara may have formulated measures to cool down the real estate industry, such as tightening loan requirements, but those who are most affected are buyers of low to medium-cost housing, she said.

This is because banks have set a higher threshold or more stringent conditions for loan applicants, which affects many first-time housebuyers, she said.

Lim is wrong to assume that the scrapping of the goods and services tax (GST) can alleviate the burdens of the cost of living of the rakyat, Wong said, adding that the removal of GST has led to plunging income for the national Treasury.

“Lim should come up with policies that will boost our economy.

“He should also do some homework when churning out national economic policies, rather than causing our Treasury to be mired further in debt and the government is thus left disabled from helping the rakyat,” she said.

On Sunday, Lim had said that he hopes there would be some changes in house prices as the government was not collecting SST for construction services.