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| Photos From Government Campaign |
In about 9 Months
from now, Good and Service Tax (GST) will be implemented for the first time in
Malaysia. If there are no heavy objections from the rakyat (Malaysia have some
sort of policy that if something that are unpopular, the government might delay
the implementation) it will be implemented. All of the company that has sales in
more than RM500,000 must register for the implementation of the new form of
tax. In other countries, GST was known as Value added Tax (VAT) . It is simply
for the government to generate more money for public spending.a In my
opinion, GST should be implemented to cater the welfare needs and to support
the aspiration to become a first world country.However, the government must
improve transparency and reduce corruption perception of the people.
Why Should We Support GST?
Too Increase Welfare allocation
According to World
Bank, Our GDP value is USD $ 305 Billion in 2013 .Malaysia has allocated around
6.2% the on welfare spending includes housing, education and health. Most of developed country especially from Organization
for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, just in case you forgot, it is the
group of most developed country in the world) , they spend around 18% to 35 %
for their welfare spending.[1]
However, they have one of the highest tax percentages
in the world. For example in Sweden, the taxes might go up to 60% of the
individual total income but the citizens are fairly happy with it[2].
My experience talking to some Swedish people, they said that, “we might have
the highest tax in the world, but we are willing to pay more! “. For sure, it
is not sarcastic. This is the real example of how people are happy to pay taxes.
In Health sector,
Malaysia on it was less than 3% which is lower than the recommendation of WHO
which is at least 5 % . [3]
It is hard to digest that even less
developing country like Namibia and Nicaragua are spending more than 7% compare
to us. Just to compare among developed nation (eg. France and Netherland) they
spend around 11% just for health service itself. It Seem
that we are quite far under the Par of the world in term of education expenditure.
In Education
Sector, Malaysia spend 5.9 % of total GDP it was actually quite low to compare
10 years ago where we spend around 8.1% in 2002. [4] However, to compare with other developed nation,
Malaysia against among the lowest allocator in term of education development.
GST as tools to support the needs of the Rakyat
From my
observation, its looks like total expenditure on welfare in Malaysia are fairly
decreasing. However, on the other hand,the Rakyat are asking for more welfare
aid from the government. Some people through political party and NGO demand
salary increment, subsidies in gross product and petrol, free education, free
toll and free health service. Therefore,
Good Service Tax is one of the solutions to support these demands.
In 2013,
government total income from tax was RM 213 Billion with increase more than
double from the last ten years[5].
However, from the fact that I have presented
before, it is still not enough. Consequently, we wanted to become developed
country, but that is much work to do. To do more, we have to have more income.
GST is one of the solutions to fulfil this aim.
However, in my
opinion, Malaysian should support GST for this to boost its income and welfare
to become a developed country. We may
survive without GST. That’s guaranteed. But, bear in mind that, how long do we
want to stick in the middle income country? Put politics aside, we see how
important the GST. Even opposition leaders once mention that he supports the
implementation of GST conditionally[6].
In short, GST will be implemented anyway, anyhow. If not now, when?
But why people choose disagree? Only
two reasons…
The absent sense Economic Solidarity feel
What we need is
Economic Solidarity. Everyone in this country should be responsible to
contribute something to the government. In Malaysia, it is quite common for
people not paying their income taxes. Especially for those who are self-employed.
Let’s start giving. By paying a certain
amount to the government will allows
them to make space for welfare and try to satisfy the majority of those in
needs. What we need is that to have solidarity in each of us to believe in the
system and intuitions we are living now. Sounds simple, but this is the hardest
part. No matter how the authority tries to explain to these people, they will
disagree. The solidarity for them is not there anymore.
People did not trust the government
In my opinion,
some of the people refuse to agree with GST is just as simple as they distrust
the government. Despite of the government crusades to fight corruption in this country,
the rank still going up. It became worse when Wall Street’s Journal report
Malaysia having among the highest level of corruption[7].
We have to know, this comes from PERCEPTIONS. Can you believe that we are more corrupt that
Rwanda? [8]This
is so unfair. Perception does not necessarily true. I think something is not
right here. It is very hard to change peoples perception if we include all
political parties, NGOs, civil servant does not work together. We do not have
to deny corruption happen did not happen at all, but please be fair in
describing it.
[1] http://www.oecd.org/social/expenditure.htm
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/money/2008/nov/16/sweden-tax-burden-welfare
[3] http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS
[4] http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Education/Education-spending/%25-of-GDP
[5] http://www.treasury.gov.my/pdf/ekonomi/dataekonomi/2014/FGR1970_2014.pdf
[6] https://my.news.yahoo.com/opposition-implement-gst-power-says-anwar-bernama-155933426.html
[7] No
matter how the authority tries to explain to these people, they will disagree.
The solidarity for them is not there anymore.
[8] http://www.worldaudit.org/corruption.htm
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