We find it disturbing and shocking with the Second Finance Minister Johari’s explanation that the cabinet did not impose GST on the 60 new food items and the Customs Director General (DG) is likewise unaware of the order being gazetted.
Johari’s explanation has raised more questions than answers. The very first question that comes to mind to any sensible thinking Malaysians would be – how did the amendment order find its way to being gazetted in the first place?
As far as the GST Act 2014 is concerned, once the zero-rated amendment order is gazetted, it would take effect and businesses and the public would need to comply with the order.
Johari’s explanation has also cast doubt on all 5 previous amendments made to the Zero-rated Supply order, which include two amendments in 2015 and three amendments in 2016. Did all these GST Zero-rated supply amendment orders receive cabinet’s approval and are still valid?
For example, in the GST Zero-Rated Supply Amendment No.3 order 2016, dry laksa, dry Kue Tiaw and dry yellow mee were deleted from the zero-rated supply order which means that they would be taxed at 6% GST rate starting from 1 Jan 2017.
This amendment was also passed by Parliament on 4th April 2017 according to the Parliament Hansard.
Can Johari confirm that cabinet’s approval has indeed been obtained to collect GST on dry laksa, dry kue tiaw and dry yellow mee?
In this connection, another crucial issue is: if the integrity of a government gazette which carries the weight of the law which can affect millions of people in this country can be questioned and its effectiveness can be challenged, there is no conclusiveness as to what the current state of the law is. The legal fraternity would shudder to think that there is no sanctity in even a gazette.