NURUL GRILLS NAJIB: Why exempt lobsters from GST, but not medicines & books?

An opposition politician today questioned the rationale of exempting lobsters from the goods and services tax (GST), when certain medicines and books were not zero-rated.

Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar said that when GST comes into effect in April, patients of private healthcare requiring medical aids, such as crutches, wheelchairs, artificial limbs and hearing aids, would be hit with GST.

There were also medicines used for treating cancer patients, kidney-related illnesses and HIV patients which were not zero-rated.

"The government is making lobsters exempt from GST because they have a project where they are actually harvesting lobsters in Sabah.

"So there is a disconnect between what ordinary Malaysians are facing versus the government's vested interest," she said, adding in jest that her constituents nor she consumed lobsters on a daily basis.

Izzah said the government had stated that Malaysia must be a knowledge-based country, yet it was acceptable for Barisan Nasional to tax books, making them more expensive.

She added that multi-billion ringgit development projects, such as 1MDB and Port Klang Free Zone along with other similar projects, have sealed the country's image as a predatory state with a profiteering crony class.

"Ordinary Malaysians are being asked to pay, directly or indirectly, for these projects through the regressive goods and services tax and abolition of subsidies to fill the Treasury's deficit-ridden coffers," she said at the Parliament lobby today.

Izzah said she was sure that there would be more surprises in store when the lists of zero-rated and exempted items were perused.

She added that a survey conducted by the International Publisher Association, which looked at value-added GST regimes, found that out of 51 countries surveyed, 47 had special discounts and exemptions on printed books.

The report also said despite the global economic crisis and the subsequent VAT-GST reforms in many countries, books were consistently confirmed to be among the goods and services that merited a special, reduced VAT-GST rate or exemption.

"So it is sinful for the government to make revenue out of books and health," Izzah said.

She called on Putrajaya to defer the implementation of GST until it was able to end losses of government resources, and those involved in corrupt and negligent practices were prosecuted.

She also urged Putrajaya to implement the open-tender system and to put in place measures to raise mean and median wages which are currently at RM2,050 and RM1,500 a month respectively.

Nurul Izzah said that a more robust poverty index to define poverty than the cost of basic needs method must be used, saying the current index did not reflect the reality of poverty in the country.

"Anything less will lead to the perception that the government is predatory and panders to vested interests, instead of fulfilling its responsibility as caretaker of the public's wellbeing."

Saying that the state was already profiting at the expense of the people, Izzah added that the GST allowed it to shirk its public duties and raise money for non-transparent projects.

"And the Malaysian citizen is being doubly jeopardised by the fact that not all medicines and books are zero-rated." –TMI