God supports GST

In barely two weeks’ time, the goods and services tax (GST) is going to be implemented. Despite the many spins, assurances and reassurances, prices of goods will be going up. Much has been said, screamed, debated and even sung about GST’s implementation.

On one side of the argument, it’s a good, sustainable, steady source of income for the government, who in turn would be empowered to do more for the lower income groups. On the other, there is leakage that needs to be plugged, there is rampant corruption that has yet to be addressed and there are options yet to be explored before we absolutely are forced to further burden the people with a new form of tax .Both proponents and opponents have their valid points.

At the crux of both arguments are, ironically – the people.

The government wants to implement it for the betterment of the people; the opposition wants to fight it for the preservation of the people.

What of the people? How much effort is really going into convincing them of these arguments?

The government has gone on an all-out campaign to promote GST. They have used a series of unusual, difficult-to-swallow arguments. GST is actually going to lower prices. Why? Because the rate is pegged at 6% as opposed to the 10% currently charged by SST (sales and services tax). What they do not mention, however, is that SST is only charged by some large establishments that not everybody goes to, while GST is going to be nearly across the board. SST was not really regulated while GST will be very well-regulated.

Well if you have more or less admitted in failing to regulate something that only some large establishments use, how much faith should we have that you would succeed in implementing something nearly across the board?

Then there is the whole “10,000-items-with-lower-prices-now” argument. Firstly, I am not sure how the government contributed to price lowering exercises carried out by our local supermarket chains. Second, this sort of gimmick has been flying around since the first large petrol hike under the administration of Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

A quick check would find you barely use 10 of the 10,000 items and they are mostly not fast-moving-consumer-goods but mostly non-perishables made in China, where they probably obtained a better bargain by adding an additional hour of underpaid labour to some impoverished workers.

There is also that new, novel religious angle which seems to be involved in almost every national issue in the last five years. It is like the argument my parents used to use on me as a kid. You cannot have that lollipop because Jesus will be upset. You cannot stay after 10 because Jesus will be angry.

So now you cannot argue about GST because God says you should not. The idea that any religion would have taught about GST back in the day where those religions were founded, is in itself an amazing argument. I guess Jesus should have accounted for GST when he performed his miracles. Hey, here are five loaves and two fish, I’ve multiplied it into… hang on, I do not have a calculator.

To their credit, there are a lot of seminars being organised, mainly by the Customs Department. But these are more concerned with how businesses are to collect GST on behalf of the government, how to submit monthly and quarterly reports, as opposed to how exactly will GST affect the lives of the man on the street. As in, how much more will I be paying in taxes, will these taxes be granted exemptions from income tax, is there a way or mechanism to get back overpaid taxes? Would it be so hard to produce this information and disseminate it in an easy to understand piece of literature to all Malaysians?

If you do not know where we live, you can get your addresses from the PM. Every year he send us BR1M cards, Selamat Tahun Baru cards, one-celebration-based-

So why not a booklet on GST? A PowerPoint slide? Some CDs?

Then we have the opposition. Probably swamped with too many issues like Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s incarceration, the squabble over hudud and PAS – GST appears to have taken a back seat. Probably even further than the back seat… somewhere in the trunk.

We have roadshows by both sides on Anwar’s case. We have vigils outside jails and police stations whenever one of our leaders gets detained. These are good, social justice promoting moves.

But it would also be nice to see a vigil outside the Finance Ministry before the GST is implemented, showing we do not want this.

It would be nice to see the same fervour in which the fight against judicial issues and social issues is extended into economic issues, which actually affects people regardless whether or not they believe in the aforementioned two.

Civil society, mostly, apart from some press conferences, has not really said much about GST. If we can have forums on Palestinian war crimes, and NGO coalitions for fair and free elections, why do not we have anything similar for GST?

Or will we only be jumping in a couple of weeks’ time when we realise we may actually need to swap Starbucks for, God forbid, Old Town Kopitiam?

But wait no, we cannot mention God. He likes GST. – March 17, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.