The Saudis learnt GST from us, says Najib

Kamles Kumar Kamles Kumar Updated 8 years ago · Published on 15 Jan 2018 1:30PM · 5 Comments

Prime Minister Najib Razak says Saudi Arabia has emulated Malaysia's goods and services tax by implementing the value-added tax. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, January 15, 2018.

SAUDI Arabia took a leaf out of Malaysia’s book by introducing the value-added tax (VAT), Prime Minister Najib Razak said today.

He said despite Malaysians complaining that the goods and services tax (GST) is burdensome, other countries are seeking to emulate Malaysia.

“I have recently concluded a working visit to Saudi Arabia. They are following our economic model.

“We have implemented the GST, they also have done it. People there, they don’t complain when they have to pay GST. The complaints are in Malaysia itself,” Najib said today when speaking to the police retirees.

Saudi Arabia had introduced the VAT at a 5% rate on January 1.

Najib, who is Pekan MP, said Malaysians also fussed about the fuel hikes even though they were only a few sens, unlike the Saudi Arabian system.

“People complain when we increase the fuel prices just by three sens. Over there (Saudi), the fuel hikes are by 126%,” Najib said.

He also said Malaysians received benefits from the government like no other including the 1Malaysia’s People’s Aid (BR1M).

Najib said Putrajaya practises redistribution of wealth, where the wealthy spend much more and the bottom 40% benefit from it.

“In principle, the rich spend much more so they incur more GST. They pay us more GST so that it is evenly distributed to the B40. 

“This is the principle of redistribution. We have already implemented (it) in Malaysia and Saudi follows us.”

Najib also took a swipe at the oppositon, saying that they object (to policies) for no concrete reason and were constantly “U-turning” their stance. 

“They will object and they would U-turn when they like. What is this?” Najib said. – January 15, 2018.

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Comments

  • Please ask for more donation from Saudi

    Posted 8 years ago by Chris Ng · Reply

  • So why you and Hadi turning Malaysia into Saudi Arabia and Iran?

    Posted 8 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply

  • Saudi Arabia learns from Malaysia to collect GST at 5%. Did Saudi government tell their people that they needed to collect GST so that they can make a donation of RM 3.4 billion to Najib personally because the King likes him. If the people knew, would they be happy to contribute GST just so a foreigner receives gift. If the people did not know, does Saudi also copy from Malaysia for not letting Malaysians know whether Malaysia tries to claim back the US3.5 billion sent to IPIC in its BVI account, but IPIC headquarters claimed that it did not receive it and the London Tribunal dictated that Malaysia 1MDB must pay again the UDS 3.5 billion to IPIC, and this time hopefully 1MDB pays to the correct office, or perhaps Najib will ask a trusted person to hand it over. Malaysians want to know whether the new payment to IPIC was from the money recovered from that wrongly sent to IPIC at BVI. There was a court case recently asking for just that information but the government objected in court. We the people will feel relieved if the government tells us that the money sent wrongly to IPIC in BVI have been recovered. Why can't the government let us be happy for once?

    Posted 8 years ago by Meng Kow Loh · Reply

  • So, Najib think Malaysian rich as Saudis. No wonder stealing billions and wastings tens of billions and hundred billion white elephant mega projects like ECRL means nothing to him.

    Posted 8 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply

  • SINCE GST RAISED SAUDI ALSO FOLLOWED ...DID SAUDI FOLLOWS NAJIB IN THE DONATION ISSUE FROM ARAB OR ARAB GOING TO FOLLOW FROM US ? US 700 M NO JOKE YA

    Posted 8 years ago by Mohanarajan murugeson · Reply