![\"Liew:](\"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/liewchintong03-650x400.jpg\")
<\/a>Liew: Focus on hand-holding small businesses in implementation of GST, not enforcement<\/p><\/div>\n
The DAP Political Education Director also said that officers, armed with a\u00a0\u201cprofiteering businesses\u201d narrative, have been busy harassing small businesses since 1st April.<\/p>\n
“GST is an administrative burden on the businesses which increases the transaction cost to the extent that many small businesses found it not worthy to operate anymore. This is compounded by the fact that the Finance Ministry and some\u00a0media outlets have tried to perpetuate two myths: first, that\u00a0after GST there will be a fall in the prices of goods just because there is no more sales tax; and second, that if there are\u00a0price hikes, it is due to recalcitrant businesses trying to make extra profits and has nothing to do with GST,” he said.<\/p>\n
He urged Prime Minister Najib Razak to focus on hand-holding small business through the process of GST, instead of overzealous enforcement.<\/p>\n
The GST, which came into effect Wednesday, has seen the Customs Department swamped with tens of thousands of phone calls as consumers puzzle over the tax and its implementation, and the department received more than 800 complaints on the first day of implementation alone.<\/p>\n
The 6% consumption tax replaces the 10% sales and service tax, and\u00a0is considered a more transparent and wide-ranging tax system. However, opposition leaders and several BN leaders have criticised the implementation of this tax, as they raise issues of low incomes and\u00a0wealth\u00a0inequality as major stumbling blocks to the GST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amidst the confusion surrounding the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the behaviour of Customs Department officers have come under scrutiny. Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong in a statement today said small businesses in Johor had complained of hostile inspections by Customs officers. “In my visits to shops in Kluang, Johor this morning, small businesses complained […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12647,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12643\/revisions\/12647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}