Malaysia is said to be pretty late in implementing Goods and Services Tax or GST. We have been implementing the Sales and Services Tax or SST for many, many years now and will convert to the GST system this coming April 1st, 2015.
I am not sure if it is a good or bad thing. The good is that we will not be paying compounded tax but the bad is we will need to pay tax on almost all goods and services when we never needed to, and retailers will surely take the opportunity to raise their prices again. It looks to be like more bad than good.
The purchasing power in Malaysia is getting from bad to worse. In the latest Big Mac Index made popular by The Economist, our Ringgit is more than 55% undervalued in comparison to the US Dollar. This is not good and on top of that we feel that the price of goods is still increasing—not quickly, but slowly and surely.
The malls and supermarkets are very busy these few days as consumers purchase and stock up on all necessities before the implementation of the GST. I did that too, though not excessively.
I have a few days left to stock up—I will be dropping into the grocery store soon.
pearlie
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