WHAT AN UN-ISLAMIC LIE, YET HADI WANTS TO CONSORT WITH NAJIB: DESPITE SOARING PRICES, FINANCE MINISTRY INSISTS INFLATION RATE ONLY 2%

KUALA LUMPUR – The country’s inflation rate now stands at about 2%, some 18 months after the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

When GST was first introduced in 2015,Second Finance Minister Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani said, the inflation rate was 3.435%.

“However today we see our inflation rate has reached to the normal range of about 2%,” he said in reply to a supplementary question raised by Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang (PAS-Marang) during Question time in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday.

Abdul Hadi had asked if the Government would consider an alternative to GST, claiming that the tax has caused an increase to the inflation rate.
Johari said he concurred with Abdul Hadi that prices of goods did see an increase when GST was first introduced.

“Many of the traders who did not pay SST felt their profit margin decreased once GST came into place.

“As such they increased their prices by taking into consideration the GST,” he said adding that the Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry had clamped down on traders who arbitrarily raise the prices of goods.

He added that the SST system had many leakages as the taxation system had some weaknesses and was inefficient.

To date, Johari said GST has earned the Government RM29.3bil.

Earlier, during the Ministerial Question Time, Johari said the highest number of recipients for 1Malaysia People’s Aide (BR1M) for 2014 to 2016 are in Selangor, followed by Johor and Sarawak.

He said in 2014, there were 8.1mil BR1M applicants nationwide but only 6.9 million were approved.

This was in response to a question by Nurul Izzah Anwar (PKR-Lembah Pantai).

– ANN

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Contributer : Malaysia Chronicle http://ift.tt/2e1FaPv