KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 4 — After MCA youth recently lauded the Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's offer to reconsider the goods and services tax (GST), PKR Youth said it would be a big mistake to reimplement the 'cruel' tax.

Selangor deputy youth chief Mohd Shah Rezza Mohd Tuniman said that there was no need to review the “cruel” GST as most would see it as a betrayal of the people’s wishes.

“Even though there are some suggestions to reinstate GST at a lowered rate of 3 per cent, this tax is not progressive at all.

“I believe Malaysians can get by without GST by avoiding wastage, increasing the capabilities of the civil service, and creating new sources of income,” he said in a statement.

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Mohd Shah said this is also the opinion of economist, Professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram, who had objected to the GST and proposed that the current system be replaced by a smart taxation system instead.

He said people were relieved when the unpopular GST tax was abolished last year on September 1 as it was among Pakatan Harapan’s election promise that the people voted for in GE14.

“Reintroducing GST is not the solution to increasing the country’s income. That comes from a major overhaul and responsible administering of the country.

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“People don’t want to get bitten twice by suffering under the burden that was GST. They gathered and objected the burdensome tax all over the country, but now there’s talk of reinstating it?” he said.

Mohd Shah pointed out that the new government needs time to solve the many problems of the previous administration, of which the biggest is to unburden the people from a high cost of living.

Yesterday, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that the government will study the GST to see if it should return, after a local economist claimed the consumption tax would help increase revenue and keep the government afloat more than the SST.

Umno and PAS has criticised the move, with Umno accusing the PH government of deceiving voters and  abolishing GST while the Islamist party insisted that introducing heftier corporate and capital gains taxes will draw more money from the rich to support the poor.

But MCA youth chief MCA Youth chief Nicole Wong Siaw Ting said that it was a good move to bring GST back, provided it was not a “carbon copy” of the previous BN policy in 2015.

Wong said GST was fairer and more transparent system to all levels of society than the sales and services tax (SST) introduced in September 2018, and proposed a new GST rate of no higher than 3 per cent.