Public mandate needed before GST can be reconsidered - Guan Eng

• Updated to include statement by Jelutung MP RSN Rayer

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said there must be “incontrovertible” evidence that the people wanted to restore goods and services tax (GST) before the government would consider bringing the taxation system back.

He said the Pakatan Harapan government fulfilled its manifesto promise to the people by eliminating the six percent tax implemented by the previous BN administration.

“If people want it, then we have to get the mandate from the people that they want six percent GST. There must be incontrovertible evidence.

“Unless you have incontrovertible evidence, you will not be able to define and determine what is the mandate of the people,” Lim said during a press conference at his ministry headquarters in Putrajaya today.

The GST initially replaced the sales and service tax (SST) in April 2015. The new Harapan government then reinstated SST in September last year, with tax rates varying from 5 percent to 10 percent.

Lim was responding to comment made by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad yesterday that Putrajaya would consider studying the restoration of the GST if the people believed it to be better than SST and if they wanted it.

Referring to Mahathir’s comments, Lim said the prime minister was merely responding to media query if the government would consider GST.

“He never mentioned this to me... In the last election, it was made very clear that the people rejected the six percent GST.

“I think that will be decided by the Harapan presidential council,” he said.

Lim spoke to the press after a Ministry of Finance monthly assembly this morning.

For the record, the GST had contributed RM44 billion annually to the national coffers while the Finance Minister had in July projected SST collection for 2019 to amount to RM22 billion.

This government said this was because the GST covered a wider scope of items while fewer things were taxed under the SST.

MP: Bringing back GST could be ‘final straw’

Deputy Finance Minister Amiruddin Hamzah, however, claimed that the SST helped raise the disposable income of the people and did not result in a significant increase in the prices of goods and services.

In defending the SST last year, Lim said that while the GST may have been more transparent and efficient, the people are taxed less under the former.

“(We will collect) RM23 billion less in tax revenue [...] this is the gift of the Harapan government to the people," the minister said at the time.

Meanwhile, DAP’s Jelutong MP RSN Rayer urged the government not to consider bringing back GST

“Pakatan Harapan leaders must remember that we came to power by criticising BN for implementing the GST which was burdensome to the rakyat,” he said in a statement this morning.

He warned restoring GST back could be the “final straw” which would break the people’s faith in the government.

This, he said, would accord BN a head start in the campaign for the upcoming Tanjung Piai by-election next month and could hurt Harapan’s performance in GE15.

“Please do not bring back the GST as we do not want Pakatan Harapan to be a one-term government,” said Rayer. - Mkini