The Sabah Progressive Party is of the view that the Barisan Nasional federal government is worse than a loan shark as it has failed to ensure uniformity in the prices of goods across West and East Malaysia.
SAPP secretary general Richard Yong We Kong that the federal government’s move to impose the goods and services tax (GST) will make Sabahans poorer as prices in the Borneo states were already higher than on the peninsula.
He said the federal government should reconsider any move that will burden Sabah, which is the poorest state in the country.
He said Sabahans were already paying between 10 and 40 percent more for almost all services and goods.
The GST, he said, would raise the cost of doing business in Sabah, which is known for its poor infrastructure and unreliable supply of water, power and other utilities.
He also accused the federal government of using the tax collected from oil palm planters in the state under the Cooking Oil Subsidy Scheme (COSS) to subsidise consumers in Peninsular Malaysia.
“ But nothing has been done to subsidise the high costs of living, transportation and shipping burdening people of Sabah,” he said.
“And don’t forget that 95 percent of Sabah’s oil and gas revenues are taken by the federal government to fund infrastructure and socio-economic development in Peninsular Malaysia and even to subsidise the toll concessionaires, while a majority of Sabahans continue to live in poverty.”
Imposing the GST, he said, would be “no different from sucking the blood of Sabah people. Is this the kind of treatment that Sabahans deserve despite being regarded as the ‘fixed-deposit’ of Barisan Nasional?”
He concluded that the federal government was worse than the Ah Long .
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