KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — The removal of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is not populism as Pakatan Harapan expressly promised this in its election manifesto, said Deputy Finance Minister Amiruddin Hamzah.

He added that the pact arrived at the decision after listening to the plight of the public, who had been financially burdened since the introduction of the GST in April 2015.

"The decision to zero-rate GST was not a populist move, but it is to ensure that the people would no longer be burdened by the tax.

"This is a promise we made in our election manifesto, and this is also the reason why Pontian, who used to sit on this side (of the House), is now sitting on the other side,” he said to former deputy finance minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan in Dewan Rakyat today.

Earlier, Ahmad asked why the government set up a fund that has only collected RM161 million in public donations to help pay down federal debt when it was foregoing over RM11 billion in revenue by suspending the consumption tax.

Ahmad had also questioned the alleged RM22 billion new debt, which he said was issued by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), since the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government took over the former Barisan Nasional (BN) administration.

"As far as I am concerned, we don’t have any new debt other than the figures that were left for us to manage accordingly and at the same time, ensure that it does not affect the budget allocated for the country, whether it is in education, health or other areas,” Amiruddin said.

On May 20, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad revealed the national debt had reached an alarming RM1 trillion, which was left by the previous government.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng recently said the GST was more efficient and transparent as it was charged on 60 per cent of the consumer price index goods basket compared to only 38 per cent by SST.

This had allowed the former government to collect RM44 billion from the GST, as compared to RM21 billion collected by SST. He said RM23 billion collected from the GST would be returned to the people.

The PH government had announced that the GST would be zero-rated effective June 1 and the Sales and Services Tax (SST) brought back on September 1, with a sales tax of 10 per cent and service tax of 6 per cent.