BY: NORHAYATI UMOR
SHAH ALAM, MAR 9: The Federal Government can abolish the Goods and Service Tax (GST) as it gets more that RM20 million savings from cooking oil and sugar subsidy rationalisation.
The DAP Secretary General, Lim Guan Eng said the savings from the subsidy cut would make up for the revenue loss from the national oil company, Petronas.
He said, prior to this, Petronas was used to channel an average income of RM30 to RM35 billion to the government.
“An English newspaper reported 10 years ago that, if the government practice open-tender and clean administration, we can save RM27 billion every year. If we do that now, we can even abolish GST.
“We can also give BR1M in this way,” he said retorting to the Second Finance Minister, Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani’s response to his question in Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
Guan Eng said, government is supposed to practice open-tender for all projects and ensure a ‘clean government’.
Johari had earlier said that GST and subsidy cuts are done to prevent government’s budget deficit in the long-run.
He said, the subsidy rationalisation plan helps government when income from crude oil dropped from RM66 billion in 2014 to RM30 billion last year.
