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Pakatan revives #BantahGST campaign with one million signature target

KUALA LUMPUR — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) relaunched today (April 6) a campaign against the goods and services tax (GST), aiming for a million signatures in the online petition after the new tax was implemented last week.

A shopper pays for groceries at the Tesco Extra supermarket in Shah Alam March 29, 2015 before the implementation of the GST on April 1. Photo: Malay Mail Online

A shopper pays for groceries at the Tesco Extra supermarket in Shah Alam March 29, 2015 before the implementation of the GST on April 1. Photo: Malay Mail Online

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KUALA LUMPUR — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) relaunched today (April 6) a campaign against the goods and services tax (GST), aiming for a million signatures in the online petition after the new tax was implemented last week.

PR lawmakers said the implementation of the broad based consumption tax last Wednesday has resulted in many price hikes that purportedly burden low-income earners, retirees and youths.

“Due to these reasons, we decided to revive the #BantahGST campaign,” said PKR members of parliament (MPs) Mr Sim Tze Tzin and Mr G Manivannan, as well as Mr Teo Kok Seong and Mr Hanipa Maidin from the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), in a joint statement.

“The #BantahGST campaign aims to get one million signatures for the online petition on the bantahGST.com website. We are targeting 200,000 signatures by May 1, 2015. Then, we will subsequently reach one million,” the opposition MPs added.

They said the campaign will comprise of different themes over the next few weeks.

“For the first campaign, we want to bring up the controversial issue on the telco top up cards. Deputy finance minister Ahmad Maslan has promised that there will be no GST for the top up cards, but now it has been proved that there is GST,” said the PR MPs.

“Prepaid services cover 60 per cent of calls, short messaging service (SMS) and data service for telecommunication companies. With GST, we predict a yearly profit as high as RM80 to RM120 million (S$30 to S$45 million),” added the Bayan Baru, Kapar, Rasah and Sepang MPs.

Several mobile phone carriers increased the price of their prepaid reload coupons when the GST kicked in on April 1 at a rate of 6 per cent, despite Mr Ahmad’s previous reassurance that the prices of prepaid reload coupons would stay the same.

Various groups have demanded for the abolition of the new tax with some anti-GST protesters gathering in front of the Federal Territories Customs department that resulted in nearly 80 arrests.

#KitaLawan organisers have also promised to hold a protest, aiming for one million participants on Labour Day on May 1, a day traditionally marked with protests by trade unions. MALAY MAIL ONLINE

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