KOTA KINABALU: The Consumer Affair and Protection Society of Sabah (CAPS) has appealed to the federal and state governments to seriously consider postponing the implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST) in Sabah and Sarawak.
Its deputy treasurer, Donny Yapp, said the GST should be postponed until such a time when both states have caught up with Peninsular Malaysia in terms of development and income level.
“Until such a time the government should not unduly burden the consumers in Sabah who are already facing a very high cost of living due to various factors.
“If the government forced GST in Sabah now, it would perpetuate the already pathetic socio-economical conditions in the state as gaps of prices between Peninsular and Sabah would further drift apart at a much wider and more radical pattern,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Yapp said CAPS had found out that the majority of Sabah consumers supported the views by several political leaders on the GST, and it had been urged by consumers to speak up for them.
“The federal government has not even done anything concrete to do away with the choking cabotage policy in transporting goods to East Malaysia and now it wanted to introduce a very high seven percent GST on goods. This would definitely compound our problems of having the costliest essential items in Malaysia!” he said.
He said what the federal government should do now is to commission an independent survey or study on the readiness of Sabah and Sarawak to absorb another tax (GST) that would surely change their lifestyle from bad to worse.
“At least the ruling party should consider us favorably for having given them another chance to rule the country as we wanted to believe they would put our people’s interests as their top priority, at least not to introduce policy that would further raise prices of goods and services here,” he said.
The state government must also be seen as taking pro-active and pre-emptive steps to reduce cost of living and not merely succumb to demand for more funds from the state. Much could have been saved if we are thrifty and efficient in spending public funds, he added.
“Be sympathetic and fair to Sabah consumers and groceries. Small retail businesses also will suffer if the people continue to get poorer in term of real purchasing power,” said Yapp.