I think Malaysians whine and moan a lot when compared to our neighbours in Indonesia and Thailand. Thailand, which has a GDP per capita that is about half of Malaysia has been having GST of between 7%-10% for years and their fuel prices have always been at least 50%-100% more expensive than Malaysia. And yet they dont guling-guling about this on the streets and just prefer to have regular red-vs-yellow overthrow of government and bringing their country to a stand-still. At the moment they have no democracy in Thailand but somehow people never go on to the Bangkok streets wearing Democracy is dead. Meanwhile in Indonesia, they have had their Pajak Pertambahan Nilai or their GST since years and years ago and is currently at 10% but for certain goods and services can increase up to 35%. And on-top of GST, Indonesia also has an additional tax called the Pajak Penjualan atas Barang Mewah or luxury goods sales tax that adds another 10% to 75% on top of their prices. Yes, Indonesians pay 10% GST + 10% luxury sales tax to buy a TV or DVD player. They also have to pay 10% GST + 20% luxury sales tax to buy an expensive house or even perfume. Or pay 10% GST + 75% luxury sales tax to buy a gold Rolex or some pearl bracelet. And in Indonesia last year, RON95 (which they call premium) increased price from 4,400 rupiah to 6,500 rupiah overnight - a 44% increase of 2,000 rupiah (53sen) per litre but yet they did not wear yellow or red and go mogok the parliament. And with their new president Jokowi coming into power, he has already stated that one of the first thing he will do is to cut subsidies and increase RON95 price further by between 40sen and 80sen (up to 46% price increase) and this is expected to happen next month. In fact, the Indonesians overwhelmingly voted Jokowi in despite knowing that Jokowi had promised to reduce fuel subsidies and increase petrol and diesel price during his election campaigning. Somehow, the Indonesians and Thai people appear to be smarter at economics and more concerned about future nation building than 52% of Malaysians.
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 10:31:14 +0000
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