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Pakatan and pro Pakatan media lied through their teeth on GST, examples being kerang (blood cockles which as fresh seafood was not GST-ed) became out-of-reach of the poor Malay women because of some ridiculous GST figures; likewise with fresh kembong; then Azmin Ali and his "fresh lobster versus cooked shrimps". It was a disgusting campaign, admittedly as most political campaigns have been

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GST would mean even an unemployed would be paying tax. True,those who normally get an exemption because they pay zakat will now be taxed. We have some dimwit suggestions that we can somehow " refund" those items that B40 have to buy. Get real. This is impractical. Why blame Chinese political party only. Ah, it's Tanah Melayu favorite devil.

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They had to win elections. DAP and some other non-Malay politicians mis or malinformed the public about how gst escalates the cost through every step in the supply chain, when they should have known better that that was a plain lie. Indeed one even tried to argue with me that that was how it worked. I had to shut him up by telling him that I used to teach it and before he embarrasses himself, to go and study it.

Of course they said that cost to the B40 would go up. If really they are so concerned, the B40 should have been advised to only consume exempt and zero rated supplies. And should they be charged any gst for necessary supplies like electricity charges, just give them a refund quarterly or something to those who are qualified and identified. So easy.

And as for the rest of the economy just imagine if we as consumers only asked for gst receipts for every purchase we made? I only realised the magnitude when a Hokkien Mee seller who operated at night issued me one. That simply means that would be clean reported income for him which he would not be recklessly spending or gambling. Eventually the government collects a lot more revenue even after a lot of refunds are given to the B40 group.

But the silly politicians, without thinking of solutions to some of the hiccups, they just exploited it.

But the biggest spoiler for the failure of gst was the Customs Department when it decided it could only make refunds after an audit, m which obviously delayed for the trader a cash flow crunch. The Customs Department failed to recognise that gst registered traders were basically acting as collecting agents on behalf of the Customers Department. If the Customers really cared that money's due to them was not coming through, maybe they should consider stationing one of their own staff at each and every cash collecting station and just make sure all gst goes OTP their till! Of course it's not practical. For GST to work everyone has to play the game, including the Customs Department. Refunds should be made at the appointed time. Not delayed. After all the trader is just a collecting agent and he is supposed to be able to deduct from what he collects the GST he has paid. And if in an account period he had paid more than he collected, then refund the excess that he had paid. Understand you buggers!?

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