Chamber disagrees with Najib over price hike of goods
Published on: Monday, May 25, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: The Kota Kinabalu Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KKCCCI) said it could not fully agree with the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's statement that traders were to blame for the increasing prices of goods.Its President Datuk Michael Lui said the pricing of a product or service was not determined by just one factor."There are various other factors such as depreciation of the ringgit, high shipping cost and increase in water and electricity tariffs that would also cause the prices of goods to go up," he said. ADVERTISEMENT He, however, agreed with the Prime Minister that there were some irresponsible traders who exploited the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to increase the prices of their goods. In this respect, he called on the authorities to conduct fair investigations on such traders before taking appropriate action.He also urged traders to rally behind the Prime Minister's call to have compassion to think about the people's interest and not burden them by exploiting the GST.Najib had said on Saturday that the traders should have reduced the prices after the Sales and Services Tax (SST) was abolished but they did not do so and instead took the opportunity to raise prices by six per cent using the GST as an excuse.ADVERTISEMENT Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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"The GST issue is caused by traders, these traders are evil, they are not responsible, not the government."When the traders exploit the situation, the people blame the government and Prime Minister. If want to be angry, get angry with the traders, they must be blamed because they do not have compassion to think about the people's interest," he said.