THE Dewan Rakyat’s question time today risked breaking out into mayhem after Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng declared he never promised that the sales and services tax (SST) would bring prices down.

Ismail Sabri Yaakob (Bera-BN) said in a supplementary question to the finance minister that the Pakatan Harapan administration had made a mistake by replacing the goods and services tax (GST) with the SST.

He said not only had the government lost an estimated RM17 billion in revenue but had broken its promise to prevent the prices of goods and the cost of living from rising. 

“Prices of goods and the cost of living continue to increase. Maybe it was a mistake by the government to replace GST with SST,” Ismail Sabri said during the session that aired live on RTM.

In his reply, Lim (Bagan-PH) said Ismail was “misinformed”, as the Statistics Department had reported that the inflation rate went down from 0.8% in July to 0.2% in August this year after the GST was abolished and before SST was implemented last month.

He said a month before GST was implemented in April 2015, the inflation rate was 0.1%, meaning that the unpopular tax had a direct effect on the increased inflation rate.

“The (PH) government never gave guarantees that prices of goods would not increase. What we promised all this while, was that if prices go up…” Lim began but could not continue due to jeers from the opposition bench.

When he continued, he said he had already answered this question.

“If (Ismail Sabri) can show where I have said SST would reduce prices, please do so. If you cannot show proof, then don’t try to spread baseless fitnah jahat (malicious slander).”

Hubbub then erupted in the House, with someone heard saying: “Let Anwar Ibrahim take over.”

Anwar, who won the Port Dickson by-election on Saturday, was this morning sworn in as MP before question time started. He was previously deputy prime minister and finance minister in the Barisan Nasional administration in the 1990s.

Speaker Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof reminded the MPs that the session was not a debate.

Ismail Sabri also questioned Lim on new taxes to be introduced to increase revenue and their estimated impact on the people.

To this, Lim told the BN MP to wait two weeks for the Budget 2019 announcement.

Lim had earlier answered an oral question from Ismail Sabri on how much revenue the federal government had lost after abolishing the GST and what the administration’s strategies were to cover the revenue shortfall.

Lim had said the government stood to lose about RM21 billion by scrapping the GST, pulling in an estimated RM4 billion from SST from September to December this year.

He had said part of the lost RM17 billion would be covered by petroleum revenue and dividends from government-linked companies.

Other measures taken by the government to boost income, he had said, would be through continuous audits and investigations by the Inland Revenue Board and Customs Department to increase tax compliance and close the tax gap.

Lim had said Putrajaya had also rationalised government departments and restructured spending priorities, postponing and renegotiating high-cost projects.

“The government will also explore new sources for income, especially from online transactions, and review tax incentives to ensure minimal impact to the reduced revenue while generating economic activities.” – October 15, 2018.