KUCHING: The Opposition in Sarawak has called on the Federal Government to cut GST, the consumption tax, by 3 per cent and not reduce EPF contributor’s saving rates by 3 per cent. “The government’s policy to cut employee’s EPF contribution rate from the existing 11 per cent to 8 per cent was basically using future savings and income to boost the present dire state of economy.
“It’s sacrificing retirement protection for short-term relief.”
According to a report by the EPF board in March 2015, recalled Bandar Kuching MP Chong Chieng Jen, 80 per cent of contributors will be living at poverty level after retirement. “In the report, the CEO highlighted that there were about 14 million EPF contributors, out of which 69 per cent will have less than RM50,000 EPF savings upon retirement.
“Without any extra income, they will finish these savings within 5 years.”
To boost the economy, ventured the MP, the government should be reducing 3 per cent of the Goods & Services Tax (GST) instead of reducing 3 per cent of the employee’s contribution rate. “The reduction of 3 per cent of the contribution rate will severely affect 80 per cent of the contributors’ retirement plan and livelihood, especially those belonging to the middle and lower income group.”
In the last two years, said Chong, the government has been targeting the general public to finance its extravagance and corruption. “Under the circumstances, a good government should be thinking about how to increase retirement savings rather than how to use savings to save the mess that it has created, using retirement savings to boost the present economy statistics and figures.”
The following are some of the policies, he added. “When the international oil price was high, the people had to buy expensive petrol, but on the other hand, when the international oil price came down by more than 50 per cent, the people were still forced to buy expensive petrol.
“Other anti-people measures were the implementation of GST, taxing the poor; cut in the subsidy on education for the poor; and reducing the EPF contribution rates, thereby using future income.”
These are only some policies which have a direct impact on the people, continued Chong. “Besides these, there are also some other policies which are not so visible, like the so-called ‘investment land purchase deals with 1MDB’ by some trust fund boards.”
At the end of the day, said Chong, the people are paying the debt for mega-corruption and the wasteful spending of the Barisan Nasional (BN) government for the past few decades. “The worst is that despite the people’s and the nation’s sufferings, such wasteful spending and corruption of the government still continues in the continuous revelation of the scandals affecting the Prime Minister and the non-transparent allocation to the Prime Minister’s Department in budget allocations.”
Source from FMT News
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