Call for special task force to monitor traders using GST excuse to hike prices

The Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry has been urged to form a special task force to monitor the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) among traders.

Tanah Merah Member of Parliament, Datuk Ikmal Hisham Abdul Aziz, said the task force was important to ensure traders would not take advantage and raise the prices of goods when the GST is implemented on April 1, next year.

He said the task force should be established in all states and districts.

"Traders who are found guilty of this (hiking up prices) should be dealt with strictly because they are 'the enemy within' in the government's effort to reduce the burden of the people," he said when debating on the Supply Bill 2015 in the Dewan Rakyat, here, today.

Ikmal Hisham said the government's move to increase the number of items exempted from the GST received good reaction from the people.

"The government's announcement thus eliminates public anxiety following the opposition's claims that people would feel much pressure from rising costs," he added.

In tabling the Budget 2015 last Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that the government had agreed to widen the scope of items that would not be subjected to GST.

The GST at six per cent will replace the existing Sales and Services Tax, which is at an overall rate of 16 per cent.

The Dewan Rakyat sitting will continue tomorrow.