Media statement by Johor DAP Policy Director and Senai State Assemblyperson Wong Shu Qi on 21st January 2015 (Wednesday):
Response to 2015 Budget Revision: Increasing disposable income instead of taking more money from middle-lower income household is the key to stimulate domestic consumption
The revision of 2015 Budget is not going to help Malaysia’s economy because Najib doesn’t seem to understand the real issue.
Not deferring the implementation of the GST will be a big hindrance to stimulate domestic consumption as every household, especially middle-lower income household, will have to pay tax, even though they are not eligible to be tax-payers with low monthly income.
BN government is shameless to admit that the government will encourage more companies to register with the Royal Malaysian Customs to enable them to charge and collect GST.
Moreover, the BN government is expecting the broadened tax-base to contribute an additional RM 1 billion in GST collection. Basically BN government is expecting more poor Malaysians to pay tax to the government to fund its cronies.
It is very childish to think that extending shopping mall operation hours will increase domestic consumption and encourage people to spend. The people will not spend if they have no money in hand. People will not spend if they need to pay more tax to the government when they are already short on cash.
We are glad that the BN government acknowledges the importance of domestic consumption in stimulating the economy, since we have not been doing well in export for the past few years due to the weaker market growth in Europe, US and other regions.
However, it seems that the BN government is only interested in protecting its cronies’s pockets and spending power more than increasing disposable income of majority Malaysian households.
BN government should focus on how to put money back to people’s pocket to stimulate the market, and not taking more money from the people at this point in time.
There are two things the BN government should immediately do, first, to defer the implementation of GST; and to reduce electricity tariff and not only defer the price hike.
Wong Shu Qi