Kota Kinabalu: The Consumer Affair and Protection Society of Sabah (Caps) appealed to the Federal and State governments to seriously consider postponing the introduction of goods and service tax (GST) for Sabah and Sarawak which is still lagging behind. "Postpone the GST until such a time when both states have caught up with the peninsula in terms of development and income," said its Deputy Treasurer, Donny Yapp, in a statement here, Wednesday.
He said until such a time the Government should not unduly burden consumers in Sabah who are already facing a very high cost of living due to various factors.
"If the Government forced GST in Sabah now, it would perpetuate the already pathetic socio-economic condition in the State as gaps of prices between the peninsula and Sabah would further drift apart at a much wider and more radical pattern.
"Caps has found out that the majority of Sabah consumers supported the views by several political leaders from Star and DAP on the GST, and we have been urged by consumers to speak up their voice now.
"The Federal Government has not even done anything concrete to do away with the choking Cabotage policy in transporting goods to East Malaysia and now it wants to introduce a very high seven per cent GST on goods," he said.
"This would definitely compound our problems of having the costliest essential items in Malaysia! What the Federal Government should do now is to commission an independent survey or study on the readiness of Sabah and Sarawak to absorb another tax (GST) that would surely change their lifestyle from bad to worse.
"At least the ruling party should consider us favorably for having given them another chance to rule the country as we wanted to believe they would put our peoples interests as their top priority, at least not to introduce policy that would further raise prices of goods and services here," he said.
He said the State Government must also be seen as taking a proactive and preemptive step to reduce the cost of living and not merely succumbs to demand for more funds from the State to the fast drying-up Federal coffers.
"Much could have been saved if we are thrifty and efficient in spending public funds.
Be sympathetic and fair to Sabah consumers and groceries. Small retail businesses also will suffer if the people continue to get poorer in terms of real purchasing power," he said.
