Never mind all the serious talk and analyses about the budget; the hard reality on the ground is something else.
Overhead at the market, one guy told a chicken seller, “I can’t afford chicken anymore; I am sticking to parippu (dhal) curry.”
Then this afternoon, I dropped by at a convenience store belonging to a popular chain to buy a set of two AAA batteries. The price tag showed RM6.50.
But the cashier said the price had just been increased to RM6.80 after the oil price increase.
He said they didn’t have time to put new tags on a few hundred items in the store, but the computer system was already using the new price and the receipt showed RM6.80.
So one round of price increases now and another when GST is introduced next year? Pensioners, retirees, and the unemployed – relying on fixed incomes or savings or worse, neither – are the hardest hit.
What are the concrete policies to narrow the wide gap between the wealthy and the poor/the struggling in this country? Instead what we have is the regressive GST and a further reduction of the corporate tax rate!
Share with us your thoughts on how the country’s economic situation and the rising cost of living is affecting you.
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Retiree M. Krishnan is one of many retirees who are hardest hit by fuel price hike. Krishnan was so upset that he put a slipper over PM Najib’s face on a poster during a protest against the latest fuel subsidy cut outside Parliament last week. Not a good omen for BN. Would MIC help him now that he is arrested?
Another incident to confirm the failure of Hindraf and MIC.
When Mahathir took power and they failed to remove him.. THIS was always going to happen sooner or later. Najibnomics or Jibbynomics basically is exaggeration of long due for expiration economic policies of Mahathir. You think its bad, it actually will get worst. They have no clue that all the signs are there in the future for a run-away inflation in the future followed by an economic collapse we have never seen – meaning first price will get out of hand and then you will lose your job and your income – and the nation will be broke and broken… Read more »
Malaysia is lagging behind in productivity due to high reliance of foreign labour while most of the graduates are jobless due to courses that are irrelevant to industry needs regardless of their results in MUET because the education policy has failed us!
Anil
Were you at that newly opened Golden Pheonix coffee shop at Sg 2 (off USM campus) for your Hokkien Mee ?
It could be expensive as I noted Char Siew Rice there starts from RM4 a plate. Your RM6.50 may be extra pork ribs ?
Do check out the stall called “ABU” selling nasi lemak next to Golden Phoenix.
Ya, happened to drop by there. And yes, tambah a bit of ingredients but not that much.
Will check out ABU(!!) next time I am in the area. Thanks.
Be careful with asking for tambah sikit at mamak stall as the price will tambah more than sikit!
Penang Institute : “Middle income households will neither receive Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia nor benefit much from tax cuts; but will have to pay GST. Consequently, they will end up having less cash – approximately RM708 per annum”.
Najibnomics:
The GST revenue (RM23.2 billion) minus the loss from the abolition of the sales and services tax (SST, RM13.8 billion), minus the increase in BR1M spending (RM1.3 billion) = RM8.1 billion, or an average of RM270 per person after being averaged across a population of 30 million.
So that means about RM1000 per household?? Nice tax eh? While they reduce the income tax rates for the corporations and the wealthy.
Ahmad Maslan has said that taxing the rich too much will make them leave the country.
So the poor are ripe for the taxing?
Doesn’t make any $en$e since the poor has nothing much to be taxed as an economic group than a highly taxed Malaysian billionaire.
And doesn’t make any sense since the poor holds the most political votes than a single billionaire.
Looks like BN is digging its own graveyard for the next GE.
Anil & Fellow Readers in Penang
Do get hold of latest Buletin Mutiara with front cover headline to stop corruption hike and not raise fuel patrol price. Also the question to Paul Low on what’s he has been doing at the cabinet in fighting corruption !
I am eating a bowl of hokkien mee with a little side ingedients. Cost RM6.50!
don’t need to wait for GST impact after April nextt year. Many vendors starts to adjust prices as they want to cushion off the fallout from the GST implementation. Some have to invest in software tools for GST purposes so they need to have extra income at expense of consumers !
noodles, cooking oil, vegetables, meat may be exempted from GST BUT the hawkers may still increase menu prices as the ingreadients to make the “SAUCE” are taxable !
I bet a simple noodle dish would start at least RM3.80 (from standard RM3.50) very soon.
Will the quality of Penang street food be compromised if inferior kicap is used to cut cost?
Besides the retirees, middle income folks are hardest hit as they do not enjoy favorable tax reduction nor qualify for BR1M. BN tightens the noose around their necks that are suffering from the middle income trap.
Next time bring along your bottle of water when you dine outside. OK to loose a bit of bin chui in order to stretch your purchasing power.
Most of the time the kopitiam operators show their unhappy faces if you do not order drnks from them. Margin is high from beverages.
While this is a distraction from your point, I think it is a worthwhile mention: If the batteries were advertised (showing a tag price of 6.50) then that should have been the price. Many times I have had to correct the Tesco (a British conglomerate) cashiers about this point. I stand and wait until they grumble and natter amongst themselves, then because i am not leaving my reluctantly pay up. silly foreigner..waste my time over a ringett. It seems to be almost universal in shops here in Malaysia that if you pay by credit card the amount is rounded up… Read more »
Be careful with Tesco as I have paid higher price on my receipt on a few occasions compared to the price tag on the shelf.
Usual excuse was the staff forgot to update the price tag on the shelf after price increase.
Based on my experience with Tesco, we can easily approach the Customer Service Counter if there were to be any discrepancies between the actual and stated price. For most cases, I was refunded in cash if the price tag happened to outdated. And there was once the hypermarket purchased back (with cash) an item that was ‘overcharged’ with respect to the outdated price tag instead of refunding back the difference.
It is rather insulting to hear from the authority that prices of many goods will go down as much as 4% with the new tax system. Najib told us prices of washing machine or refrigerator will drop and we shall see if this is happening. Although basic food items are not subjected to GST, soya sauce is. So this is enough excuse for food traders to raise price of cooked food.
Those YBs at the parliment are given increase in allowances (inducement?) to keep them quiet?