The deputy finance minister, in an Astro Awani report today, defended his suggestion as part of the efforts to reduce the burden of goods and services tax (GST).
“I spoke for two hours 45 minutes and on various topics but they only picked up only one line – cooking one’s own meals,” the news portal reported him as saying.
“I didn’t say cook at campus, I said cook your own meals. More than half of the students stay in rented houses and I had proposed to them to cook their own meals,” he added.
Ahmad Maslan insisted to the news portal that his suggestion was not meant to those staying in university campus.
“We have also advised the campus café operators to price their food reasonably,” he said.
“I have explained it all. We encourage them to cook their own meals if they are renting outside the campus and café operators should not increase their prices as the basic food items were exempted from GST,” he said.
Ahmad Maslan was criticised heavily yesterday as students took to the social media condemning the suggestion he made at the Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) in Shah Alam.
The students attending the briefing on GST also complained that the deputy minister failed to answer their questions on the consumption tax but instead was bent on criticising the opposition.
It was reported yesterday that when one student asked why the tax was being implemented at a time when the country's economy was not doing well and the people were feeling the pinch of the rising cost of living, Ahmad Maslan instead hit out at the student's comments, saying the SST system was the one that was a burden and not GST.
Astro Awani had also reported that a substantial number of the university students argued on Twitter that his suggestion was impossible to practise as universities forbid students from cooking on campus.
Some had also tweeted that cooking appliances and water heaters are also not allowed to be brought onto campus.
- TMI
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