'I want to see how Harapan abolishes GST'

GE14 |  A BN MP has attributed public sentiments against the goods and services tax (GST) as a factor that contributed to the coalition’s historic federal defeat to Pakatan Harapan.

Larut MP Hamzah Zainuddin, who is the former domestic trade, cooperatives and consumerism minister, said that he was keen to see how Harapan would be able to fulfil its pledge to abolish the GST.

This is as he claimed that the new government would not be able to fulfil its other major promise to bring down the price of petrol if it went ahead and abolished the GST.

“This is all about the GST sentiment. We (BN) are actually better than Harapan in everything that we have done previously.

“But they say they want to abolish the GST, so I want to see. Because if they abolished the GST, they will lose approximately RM40 billion in revenue, so from there, how could they say they want to reduce petrol price?,” he told reporters when met at PWTC after a meeting with BN chairperson Najib Abdul Razak.

Najib earlier met with around 50 out of the remaining 78 BN MPs at Menara Dato Onn, the Umno headquarters.

Commenting further, Hamzah said the pledge to abolish GST was easier said than done.

“Even for now the price of petrol which had gone up by about 30 sen is costing about RM600 million (in subsidy). What more with the BR1M payments.

“So I don’t know, what is most important is that they have to do the best for the people and not for any individual (agenda),” he said.

Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (photo), meanwhile, speculated that BN’s losses could have been due to the influence of social media, particularly among the young voters.

“I expected that we would win, if not with a large majority, but at least a simple majority.

“But in the last minute, something happened. Most of the young voters were highly influenced by social media - that attacked and made claims against the (former BN) government,” said Tajuddin, a former deputy minister.

Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, meanwhile, shared similar sentiments as his party colleagues but said he did not expect BN to suffer such heavy losses.

“I am not so surprised, I predicted that this would happen…but just not to this extent,” he said.

In GE14, BN only succeeded to capture 79 out of 222 parliament seats.

This is also the first time since the nation’s history that BN had lost to the opposition coalition. -Mkini