KUCHING, Nov 23: A price comparison of the top 30 most saleable grocery items in the five main supermarkets here revealed that the prices of most goods under the Sales and Services Tax (SST) are lower when compared to when they were under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
Deputy Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) Chong Chieng Jen, in a press statement today, pointed out that logically, the general prices of goods under SST should be lower than prices of goods under GST.
“This is because there are only approximately 500 items of goods exempted from GST, whereas there are more than 5,000 items of goods exempted from SST,” he explained.
Chong also listed the price comparison of 30 most saleable items that were taken from five main supermarkets in Kuching, namely Giant (Tabuan), Servay (EG Mall), Everise (Batu 4), E-Mart (Batu Kawa) and H&L Supermarket (Kuching Sentral).
⦁ Giant – 23 items price decrease, 5 items price increase, 2 items price unchanged
⦁ Servay – 23 items price decrease, 3 items price increase, 4 items price unchanged
⦁ Everise – 24 items price decrease, 3 items price increase, 3 items price unchanged
⦁ E-Mart – 23 items price decrease, 4 items price increase, 3 items price unchanged
⦁ H&L – 22 items price decrease, 5 items price increase, 3 items price unchanged
“These prices were taken on Nov 13, 2018, and a comparison of the prices of the respective goods before June 1, 2018 (when GST was abolished) was made,” he said.
Chong also emphasised that the figures were consistent with the general statistics that for the four months after the abolishment of GST, Malaysia’s Consumer Price Indexes (CPI) experienced the lowest inflation figures since 2015.
The Malaysia CPI increased 0.8 per cent in June 2018 as compared to the same period previous year at 3.6 per cent, 0.9 per cent in July 2018, 0.2 per cent in August 2018 and 0.3 per cent in September 2018.
“From the government’s point of view, the amount of tax collected from consumers in general under the GST system is RM43 billion per annum, whereas under the SST, the estimated amount to be collected from the people is only RM22 billion,” he said.
Compared to GST, he reiterated that the people pay RM21 billion less in tax in a year under SST.
“Part of this reduction in tax payable by the people is, thus, translated into a reduction in the price of goods,” he concluded. — DayakDaily
