The long awaited GST day has come and everyone is anxiously waiting to see what happens to the prices of things in Malaysia. Many many people feel that the prices of things - almost everything - in the market will just shoot up. And the signs that we see around us suggest that they are right. Various Fares, Rates and Charges will go up as already heralded by the Newspapers and more important, what was not taxed before will face the cut.
Must the Hawkers collect GST?
Interestingly, the price of patrol which had made people very happy some months ago when RON75 fell to RM1.90 per liter will go up to RM2 plus again. And since the price of crude is going up again, you never know when it will exceed the maximum reached before. And when the price of patrol go up you know what will happen. The flame will spread to increase even the price of "nasi lemak","roti chanai" and "teh tarik" - the favourite breakfast dishes of the common Malaysians (those nurtured and bred in a foreign country or culture excluded).
How to monitor their sales?
So GST is get ready to …what? Certainly the first thing to do is just watch. The common men-in-the-street cannot do anything to prevent their strong government from passing any law they want, in the name of trying to pursue the objective of making this country a developed nation by 2020.
Yes, everything is costly is a developed nation like in the West and in Japan. But the pay structure and the salary of government servants are different. Much much higher as in Singapore.
We want to be a developed nation with very low pay, and inflation eating up the increase that had been approved. Hence everyday we here of enterprising public officials "making hay while the sun shines" via corrupt practices. What can you do if you can't even make ends meet?
thoousands of them around the country
Maybe if Government raises the income level of people to qualify for BRIM to RM5000, many many more Malaysians will qualify for the handout. Then we will have a nation of BRIMMERS - instead of social welfare recipients as in other developed countries. I don't think we can have a developed nation full of BRIMMERS. Unless the mark of being developed is through the traffic nightmares full of bright, shiny and expensive cars owned by the rich towkays and politicians with private jet planes to hop around in, we won't have a developed nation if people depended o BRIMS to have a decent life.
Well, why grouch? Let's see what GST will will do to the people. We know it worked well in developed countries where salaries are high and cost of things pretty much under control. I wonder if all street stalls selling "pisang goring", "keropok leko", "nasi lemak" etc must now have cash registers to keep track of their sales and tax that must be paid? How else can the GST be collected from the thousands of small stalls in the country?
