Voon Shiak Ni
KUCHING (March 18): Social activist Voon Shiak Ni has questioned what the government has done to help Malaysians particularly the low and middle-income groups tackle the rising cost of living.
She said the decline in the purchasing power due to the weakening of ringgit has affected not only the B40 but also the middle-income group.
“What are the measures taken or to be taken by the Madani government to ease the cost of living which keeps spiralling?
“With the increase of the Service Tax rate from six to eight per cent, effective from March 1 this year, we are seeing another surge in the prices of goods and food commodities,” she said in a statement today.
Voon noted that the Finance Ministry had stated that the new tax system was expected to generate an estimated additional revenue of RM3 billion for the development of public infrastructure and improvement of welfare assistance of the poor in the country.
She, however, opined that specific measures to reduce inflation and address the issue of weakening ringgit will be more effective to contain the rising cost of living.
According to her, the increase in taxes will further burden the people, resulting in further price hike for almost everything.
She said this is because the costs of production due to increase in taxes will be passed down to consumers via increase in prices of the goods.
“This Ramadan, we can see the price differences in the food sold at the bazaar and netizens have commented on the price hike. We cannot blame them (sellers) for the price hike as the costs for the food items have increased,” she said.
Gone are the days when consumers could spend RM1 for three pieces of ‘pisang goreng’ (banana fritters) and RM2 for a packet of regular nasi lemak, she added.
Voon feared that the cost of living will continue to surge in light of the depreciated ringgit.
She said the call for an increase in minimum wage will not reverse the spiralling cost of living, but on the contrary, is expected to trigger another round of price hike due to increase in labour costs.
“While it is imperative for the government to increase the national revenue, it is of equal importance to look into some measures to help people cushion the impact of rising cost of living,” she added.
Voon, therefore, placed hope on the federal government to combat inflation and strengthen ringgit.
“We are hopeful that the Madani government will gather feedback from stakeholders and the grassroots to formulate positive and accurate measures to address the issue of the escalating cost of living and ease the burden of the people,” she said.