(Kuching, 11th) In response to the announcement by the Second Finance Minister, Dato' Sri Amir, that the government will review the Sales and Services Tax (SST) rate from July 1st and expand the service tax coverage to "strengthen the national financial situation", Sibu province Chinese General Association President and Sibu Chinese Chamber of Commerce President Dato' Ng Biaw Sing strongly criticized this as akin to "cutting into people's pockets", not only increasing the public's burden but also exposing the government's reluctance to face fundamental issues, instead relying on a short-sighted governance logic of taxing citizens.
Dato' Ng Biaw Sing pointed out that last year, the government announced an increase in civil servants' salaries by 15% to 42.70%, without administrative optimization and staffing reductions in place, which will undoubtedly worsen the national financial burden.
He said data shows that the current number of civil servants in the country has reached 1.7 million, about 5% of the national population of 34 million. This means that one in every 20 people is a civil servant, a ratio not only much higher than in efficiently governed countries like Singapore and South Korea, but even higher than in larger economic powers like China.
More seriously, besides active civil servants, Malaysia has nearly 1 million retired civil servants. According to data from the Ministry of Finance, the government needs to spend as much as 95.6 billion ringgit annually on civil servant salaries, pensions, and administrative expenses, accounting for 42% of the total annual expenditure.
Ng Biaw Sing bluntly stated, why is the national financial situation tight? It is not because the people are not paying taxes, but because the civil service system is overly bloated and administrative expenses have long been out of control!
He further criticized the government for seeing "aid money" as the main poverty alleviation method, which not only fails to truly improve people's income capabilities but also fosters a culture of dependency, exacerbating fiscal deficits.
"The government is buying people's hearts with aid money on one side, while on the other collecting it back through SST, income tax, etc. It's like giving money with one hand and taking it with the other, ultimately making the people into ATMs!"
Regarding the Second Finance Minister's announcement to expand the service tax coverage from July and review the SST rate, Ng Biaw Sing sternly warned that this would inevitably push up inflation. The catering, logistics, financial, insurance, and other essential service sectors will face upward cost pressure, ultimately passed onto consumers.
"Every bowl of noodles, every courier, every transaction will be taxed more by the government. Who suffers? It’s the wage earners, hawkers, small merchants, and low-income families!"
He angrily scolded that if the government continues to prioritize "taxation first" over "reform first", Malaysia's economic competitiveness will continue to decline, and the people's livelihood will only become more difficult.
Ng Biaw Sing proposed four key fiscal reform directions and emphasized that "raising taxes is always the easiest but most irresponsible approach":
1. Freeze civil servant hiring, set staffing limits, promote administrative system optimization, and reduce redundancies and unnecessary expenses.
2. Transform aid money into skills training and employment support programs, shifting from "giving money" to "empowerment", enhancing people's self-reliance abilities.
3. Comprehensively crack down on corruption and misuse, prevent project waste, ensuring every penny of taxpayers is used effectively, such as in education, healthcare, and infrastructure.
4. Support SMEs, reduce operating costs, create more jobs and tax sources to expand the economic pie, rather than squeezing people's sweat.
"The responsibility for the national financial problems lies in the system and management, and should not be borne by the people. If the government continues to ignore structural issues, it will ultimately lose the people's hearts and drag down the foundation of national development."