Comments distorted by Chong, says Abdul Karim

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SIBU: Assistant Minister of Youth Development Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said both his and Housing Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg’s comments on prices of houses after the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) have been taken out of context.

“I am amused by YB Chong’s (Chieng Jen) remark on Datuk Amar Abang Johari’s comment and mine on GST, which he claims to show differences.

“As I have always said before, DAP will find fault in anything you say and even if there’s none, he will create one and distort your comment.

“Datuk Amar Abang Johari and myself definitely cannot read the future.

“Our comments are taken out of context and pitted against each other. Both of us have said that prices of houses are determined by market forces… by economic forces of supply and demand,” Abdul Karim, who is Asajaya assemblyman, said yesterday.

He was responding to the state DAP chairman’s claim that Abang Johari and him had made contradictory statements on the prices of houses after the implementation of GST.

Adding on, Abdul Karim said if there was more demand, there was a tendency for the prices to increase.

Presently, the Sales and Service Tax (SST) is 15 per cent while the GST would only be six per cent.

Anyone, he argued, would agree that six per cent was much lower than 15 per cent.

Thus, said the PBB Supreme Council member, prices of goods, including houses, should go down after imposition of GST.

“Abang Johari’s statement is correct. Realistically, that should be the scenario.

“But we are also dealing with market forces and housing developers who want to make profit.

“Even without GST, prices of houses still will increase by about 10 per cent per year, depending on locality.

“I presume the increase after GST to be around three to four per cent after taking into account the reduction in government tax from 15 per cent to six per cent with the change from SST to GST and yearly ‘increase’ in house prices.”

Abdul Karim reiterated that there was no difference between their comments.

“He (Chong) knows economics. He is just pitting myself against my minister for reasons only known to himself. Or probably, he has run out of issues with the state government. Well, he can fool some sometimes, but he cannot fool the masses all the time,” he said.