Budget does not benefit young – Junz

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KOTA KINABALU: The 2014 Budget is not benefitting young Malaysians, said Likas assemblyman Junz Wong.

He said youth unemployment is serious and hovering at 10.3% and most unemployed youth are between the age 20 to 24, which also make up 40% of the total unemployed in the country.

“The issue hasn’t been addressed at all. Over 80% of young people aged 30 and below earn less than RM3,000 a month. This situation is made worse by the problem of high indebtedness among young Malaysians. Approximately 47% of youth spent 30% or more of their monthly income to service debts,” he said.

Junz claimed that the 2014 Budget did not address the socioeconomic problems of young Malaysians, especially unemployment but further burden their living.

Firstly, he said the introduction of the new Goods and Services Tax (GST) at 6% will affect the young the most because they are generally the target of consumerism.

Most young people did not need to pay income tax previously so the new income tax exemption for those earning RM4,000 and below did not benefit majority of young employed Malaysians, he said.

“Young Malaysians now would have to pay GST, estimated to be about RM660 (projection for those earning about RM2,500 a month) and may reach up to RM1,000 a year. They will be poorer after the introduction of 2014 Budget,” he said.

To make the situation worse, he said the abolishment of sugar subsidy means another blow for young people who now also have to pay more for food and beverages.

Junz, who is also DAPSY National Publicity Secretary, stressed that that was especially true for young Malaysians in Sabah and Sarawak. The abolishment of sugar subsidy and other subsidy cut exercises, along with the existing cabotage policy would further widen the gap of prices between East Malaysia and Peninsula.

The cost of transportation, including air fare, will also increase and this will add new burdens to Sabahans and Sarawakians, who are dependent on air travel for most socio-economic activities, he pointed out.

Responding to Tourism, Culture and Environment Minister Datuk Masidi Manjun who advised the people to undertand GST before criticising on its implementation and he thought 6% GST was certainly better than than 11% sales and services tax, Junz said Malaysians are well aware of what GST is all about.

“Except for some items listed in 2014 Budget are exempted from GST, most commodity items such as phones, laptops, glasses, tables, air-conditioners, operational machines and cars will be chargeable under GST. The list goes on. These items mentioned above are not chargeable under both sales and service taxes.

“What is the implication of these chain-reaction effects of GST implementation?” Junz asked.

“Once GST is implemented, sales and service tax will be removed and it seems to be benefiting the consumers but this is not true. From manufacturers to suppliers to wholesalers to retailers to end-users, most transactions will be chargeable under GST. For a restaurant for instance, from computers to lighting to air-conditioner to chairs to menu to printing to coffee brewer to workers’ uniforms and chef apron will be charged with GST. At the end of the day, consumers will be the ones losing the most and paying for most of the accumulated effects of GST,” he explained.

“We Pakatan are not saying GST is not a good policy because it has been implemented in many developed countries but we are saying that the timing of GST implementation is inadequate. Malaysia is not ready for GST yet,” he said.