KUCHING: Not all goods would cost more and should even cost less with the implementation of the government service tax (GST) on April 1 next year.
Explaining the situation, state director of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (KPDNKK) Stanley Tan said some items would be exempted from GST and withthe scrapping of the current sales and government taxes consumers should pay less for these goods.
“I believe the implementation of the GST effective on April 1 next year will make certain goods much cheaper. But of course traders could still raise the prices.
“This is where our ministry will have to work doubly hard to ensure they (traders) will exploit the situation,” Tan told The Borneo Post here yesterday.
He stressed that his ministry’s main task would be to ensure that prices of essential items in the rural areas should be the same as those in the urban areas.
“This year Sarawak has been allocated with RM170 mill for the rationalisation exercise to standardise the prices of essential items such as rice, sugar and cooking oil. And next year we also expect the same allocation,” he said.
Tan said that besides monitoring the prices of goods in the urban and rural areas, his ministry must also be on their toes to prevent smuggling across the border as most of these essential items were cheaper than in our neighbouring country.
“This is one of the reasons why we need extra manpower as the State is so large. On top of that we must also work closely with other enforcement agencies such as the police and customs department to prevent cross border illegal trading,” he said.
Tan said currently smuggling activities were committed along the jalan tikus and jalan gajah (illegal crossings along the border) as there were basically no monitoring there added Tan without giving specific details on the loss which the state suffered from smuggling across the border annually.
Other items which are commonly smuggled across the border are gas cylinders and diesel, which has caused a major headache for the locals as it has adversely affect the normal demand and supply chain.