Recently, KPMG Malaysia had suggested that salaries should be increased by at least 6% following the federal government’s decision to impose GST in 2015. This is to help the people tide over the higher cost of living.
In Sabah, the recent price hikes caused by government policies in reducing petrol and sugar subsidies and increase of electricity tariffs have resulted in more than 10% across the board price increases. With the GST imposition and inflation, the cost of living will probably be higher by 15% to 20% in 2015.
Even without the recent price hikes and the GST, Sabahans are already burdened with much higher costs due to the crippling cabotage policy. Despite years of calls by various groups, the federal government had done nothing to abolish the cabotage policy.
The Sabah government cannot rely on the federal government to take the initiate to help Sabahans. With the PM announcing that “kangkung” (watercress) price has gone down and that the government should be praised shows that the PM and his government is clueless and unable to help the people. It has led to the ridicule of the PM on the social media but you need to say that it was a good comic and gimmick that it has diverted attention of the people from talking of higher petrol prices to everything “kangkung” from Mckangkung to kangkung fried belacan.
If the Sabah government sincerely cares for the welfare of the people in Sabah, then it needs to work towards some plan to reduce the burden of rising costs of Sabahans.
One option of course is to increase the income of the people by 6% as suggested by KPMG Malaysia. Since this is not workable, the other option is to work with the federal government and seek the exemption of Sabah from GST in 2015 for at least 3 to 5 years.
There is every basis for Sabah and Sarawak to be exempted from GST.
As it is, Sabah is the poorest State in Malaysia and Sarawak is not far behind. Official statistics from the PM’s Department reveal that Sabah had 53.5% or 8,457 of the abject poor households in the nation while Sarawak accounted for 11.4%. However, in reality the number of households are considerably higher than the official numbers, perhaps as high as 5 to 10 times.
Sabah and Sarawak have been unjustly deprived of their resources and wealth. They are major contributors to the federal coffers. In 2014, Sabah will contribute RM26.6 billion in oil revenue with another RM45 billion from Sarawak. This factor alone more than justify the GST exemption. Sabah produces more than 35% of Malaysia’s crude palm oil production and the industry contributed about RM73 billion nationally in 2015.
The Sabah government needs to work towards policies and programs that will help insulate Sabahans from the GST nightmare. They have about a year or less to come out with the solution.
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