KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 – DAP’s Lim Guan Eng expressed disappointment said today that the budget that tabled by the prime minister does not reduce Malaysians’ financial burden which it did not abolish of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The Penang Chief Minister said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak did not mention steps to strengthen the ringgit, which is now at RM4.22 against the US dollar.
“It was a tutup scandal budget due to it does not solve the problem of GST, how we can resolve it. It has to be abolished. If not what happens, as I’ve said, we have lost RM100 if there is GST, toll [hike], increase in oil prices and the depreciation of the ringgit. We lose RM100, and he gives RM30, so no difference,” Lim, who is DAP secretary-general, told reporters at the Parliament lobby here after Datuk Seri Najib Razak tabled the RM267.2 billion budget.
The government budget tabled in Parliament, however, doubled the number of medicines zero-rated under the GST and expanded the zero-rated list for household items, including kolok noodles for Sarawakians. Budget 2016 allocated RM267.2 billion, an increase from a revised allocation of RM260.7 billion for 2015.
In the same time, federal government was also revenue the collection on 2016 which is projected at RM225.7 billion, up from RM3.2 billion from 2015. GST collection is expected to increase government revenue by RM39 billion, versus RM27 billion in the first eight months of 2015.
