Is this how to win an election ? ..
These few days, Barisan National was in a state of near panic when someone in the opposition promised the rakyat that if they are returned to power, they would abolish excise duty and import duty on cars. Now, for that, I and a great majority of the rakyat would gladly give a resounding vote to the opposition. Taken aback by the antics of the opposition, BN ministers are now trying hard to explain to us that removing the duties on cars is tantamount to making the country bankrupt for how else can the country pay for development, salaries of civil servants, etc, etc. The country would be starved of funds.
Joining the chorus of BN politicians explanations are the custom officials who protest that that means a shortfall of RM 7 billion per year. How is the custom dept. going to replace such a big amount especially when, according to the newly minted Customs Director-General, as it stands now, leakages amounting to some RM 8 billion are draining the Customs annually. He unabashedly blames the leakages due to the shortfall in duty collection because importers of goods tend to under declare their products that they bring into the country and that the Customs have no way of determining the prices of such goods and therefore are unable to quantify the tax amounts.
What a load of rubbish !
To think that all this time the Customs have been losing revenues because importers under declare their imports is a far fetched argument. What's so difficult in obtaining prices of imported goods from Europe or the US since most, if not all, invoice their goods fairly and honestly unlike, maybe, exporters from say China or India or from the Asean countries, except Singapore, who may not cooperate with Customs of importing countries. Even so, if they were caught, the Malaysian Customs can simply blacklist them. As for used car imports, it is not difficult to determine their prices provided the base prices i.e. their prices when new, are known and these are usually published in motor magazines, internationally or locally. And what with the availability of the internet that one can easily obtain the price of any car model instantly. It is difficult for us to accept the leakages unless of course the Customs are not doing their jobs.
Back to the opposition antic on giving surprises to the BN. It is nothing new. The oppositions have been doing it for years such as the toll rates they would reduce or tolls that they would abolish, or the price of fuel that they would reduce if returned to power, or the doing away with PTPTN, the increase on oil royalty, to name a few. Each time the opposition did this BN politicians panicked. Anwar gets a kick out of doing this and that, just to irk Najib who would then has to explain away in the media. The next time, Anwar will say that he would remove income tax and that would make all taxpayers consider voting for the opposition without giving a second thought. Najib would have a hard time to counter this. Anwar might go further as to propose that if the oppositions were to return to power he would double or triple the salaries of all civil servants in the country, across the board. He would do it simply by taking some of the USD 144 billion in our forex reserve.
To think that all this time the Customs have been losing revenues because importers under declare their imports is a far fetched argument. What's so difficult in obtaining prices of imported goods from Europe or the US since most, if not all, invoice their goods fairly and honestly unlike, maybe, exporters from say China or India or from the Asean countries, except Singapore, who may not cooperate with Customs of importing countries. Even so, if they were caught, the Malaysian Customs can simply blacklist them. As for used car imports, it is not difficult to determine their prices provided the base prices i.e. their prices when new, are known and these are usually published in motor magazines, internationally or locally. And what with the availability of the internet that one can easily obtain the price of any car model instantly. It is difficult for us to accept the leakages unless of course the Customs are not doing their jobs.
Back to the opposition antic on giving surprises to the BN. It is nothing new. The oppositions have been doing it for years such as the toll rates they would reduce or tolls that they would abolish, or the price of fuel that they would reduce if returned to power, or the doing away with PTPTN, the increase on oil royalty, to name a few. Each time the opposition did this BN politicians panicked. Anwar gets a kick out of doing this and that, just to irk Najib who would then has to explain away in the media. The next time, Anwar will say that he would remove income tax and that would make all taxpayers consider voting for the opposition without giving a second thought. Najib would have a hard time to counter this. Anwar might go further as to propose that if the oppositions were to return to power he would double or triple the salaries of all civil servants in the country, across the board. He would do it simply by taking some of the USD 144 billion in our forex reserve.
posted by Richard Sorge @ 2:16 AM
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