Dilemma of a lobster - To be or not to be?

Did I mention the PKR circus is back in town? wakakaka.

Just read TMI's PKR holds ‘lobster’ party to prove point on GST.

Monsieur Homard, are you just red or just cooked?
If red and raw, you're GST-free, if cooked you are to be GST-ed

I'm PKR, I can be red or cooked depending on what is required
I'm basically manmanlai

To be, or not to be, that is the question—
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them?

wakakaka

An extract: Dr Afif Bahardin, who is Penang health and agricultural exco, said GST was implemented on food stuff like instant noodles and biscuits but not on expensive seafood, which only the rich could afford.

On the surface of Dr Afif Bahardin's statement, it would seem the GST is discriminatory ... in favour of luxury goods. But then he is a member of that party called the Malaysian Circus, wakakaka, so let's look beyond just the surface.

Do you like donkeys?

wakakaka

Let me attempt to apply the Australian GST rules as a parallel model, an example for comparison so to speak, as I am not conversant with the Malaysian one in its details.

Australian GST would be applied to processed (or manufactured) food but not on uncooked or raw food, so if the Malaysian system is similar then it's obvious uncooked or raw seafood, whether it's lobsters as PKR had chosen to make its anti GST campaign more dramatic or just ikan belanak from the wet market, would NOT be GST-ed.

I was caught off Sungai Pinang on Penang Island, directly opposite Permatang Pauh on the mainland

wakakaka

Unfortunately, noodles and biscuits are manufactured food and thus subject to GST.

So, we need to be fair in our discernment, that whether a food is GST-ed or not, will depend on its state (processed or raw). If you choose not to be fair and used extreme examples, in other words to play rotten politics (like the other side as you claimed), then carry on (and be just exactly like the other side).

In Australia just prior to the GST being implemented on 01 July 2000, there was a laughable circus in the Australian parliament over the GST-ing of roasted chicken versus the un-GST-ed raw chicken - for more, read this ABC interview transcript where too-clever-by-half Meg Lees and her 3rd Force Democrats politic-ed themselves into oblivion, wakakaka.

"It doesn't matter whether a mouse is raw or cooked, as long as it feeds the cat."

- with apologies to Deng Xiaoping

wakakaka

Also read this Wikipedia extract: During the 1998 election campaign, the leader of the Australian Democrats, Meg Lees, stated that her party was opposed to a GST unless food, books and tourism packages sold offshore were exempt, and other compensating tax measures were implemented.

The government initially stated that exemptions to the GST were not possible, and looked most likely to pass the GST legislation with the support of independent Senator BRian Harradine.

However a compromise was eventually reached with Lees, involving most basic food items being exempt from the GST, the GST on library purchases of books being refunded, a temporary 8% refund on school textbooks, increases to welfare payments, and greater powers to the ACCC to oversee the implementation of the new tax regime.

A proposal to exempt tampons from the GST was dismissed by Howard. The legislation was passed on 28 June 1999 as A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999. It gained assent on 8 July 1999 and came into operation on 1 July 2000.

Many in Malaysia might have misunderstood GST as an additional tax on top of the various taxes on goods employed previously. In the Australian example which I presumed Malaysia's would more or less be similar to, the GST is meant to REPLACE (not add on to) those already-existing multi-layered taxes to make simpler the overall tax on goods and services.

In Australia, a 10% GST is imposed on goods like furniture, motorcars, clothing, processed food etc , and 'services' like car repairs, doctor services, char-kuat (massage, wakakaka), haircuts, plumbing or electrical works, etc.

Now tell me, what are your views on GST?

Errrr ... I'll tell you after you let go of me

wakakaka

By the way, it does not replace income tax which is a separate tax altogether, which taxes one's income or revenue.

Additionally, it is NOT the same as the 'service charge' that hotels and some restaurants levy on their customers. While GST is a government tax, the hotel & restaurant 'service charge' is not, but actually an institutionalized 'tip' for the hotel & restaurant staff, agreed to by hotel & restaurant management and the staff unions which has nothing to do with the government. It goes to the staff as 'tips'.

Likewise, zakat is a Muslim obligation to his or her religion, and has nothing to do with GST which is a government (not religious) tax, and therefore should not be a consideration for reducing GST for Muslims who pay zakat.

In fact, the Christian equivalent of zakat in many cases are far more than a Muslim's zakat. An extreme example is that of some Scandinavian churches which levy a contribution of 50% of its devotees' secular income, wakakaka, yes, half of what its parishioners earned in their lay-lives.

With GST, most things should become cheaper while some will be dearer.

How can it be cheaper, you may ask? Because GST replaces the existing taxes on the goods. Goods that had government taxes levied on it prior to GST should have been removed, thus making the goods either cheaper or at worst, the same price.

For example, if a product was previously taxed at or to a total of 10% then that product would become cheaper because it's now taxed by GST at only 6%. Some products which were previously not taxed at all would of course become dearer, by 6%.

I wonder how much was 'white goods' (eg. fridge, washing machine, airconditioner, microwave oven, western style stoves and ovens, etc) taxed at previously (ie. prior to GST)?

So, the 'lobsters' that Azmin Ali brought from the wet market should be GST free because those udang galah were raw or unprocessed goods, but if Azmin Ali were to sell them after satay-rizing them, wakakaka, then his barbecued (cooked) prawns should be GST-ed at 6%, whence he then has an obligation as a trader to collect and submit the 6% tax from their sales and hand the taxes over to the government, wakakaka again.

grilled & helicopter-ed direct from Kajang

to enable us to go to Putrajaya

wakakaka

One of the hypocritical or bizarre moronic outcome of our deformasi politics is some Chinese taking an anti-GST stand, when the GST actually mitigates (solves) one of their age-long complaints, namely, that they (the Chinese) alone have been bearing most of the taxes in Malaysia.

To understand what I mean, please read my July 2013 post Food for thought (1) - GST. Bodoh punya Cina!