Online Users Grumble About Sst And Poultry Prices

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The temporary ceiling prices on chicken and eggs has been removed, with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim saying it would allow room for the market to freely manoeuvre.PETALING JAYA: Some social media users registered their disappointment with the 2024 budget unveiled by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim this afternoon, following his announcement of an increase in sales and services tax (SST) from 6% to 8%.
People also grumbled about the removal of the temporary ceiling prices for chicken and eggs, which Anwar said in his budget speech would allow room for the market to freely manoeuvre in ensuring uninterrupted supply.
Social media checks by FMT found numerous unhappy Facebook posts about the new SST rate.
Edward Chin said: “(Their) true colour is out. Increasing taxes means more burden on (the) rakyat. (There is) no solution to bring down the cost of living.”
Another Facebook user, Md Zin Saleh, fumed over the poultry price decision which he claimed would ruin the rakyat’s livelihood.
Izam Md Nor said that he does not “see any greatness” in the 2024 budget. “Overall, all (of the) ordinary rakyat must take the burden,” he said.
However, Facebook user Ram Sam Sam defended the sales tax increase, saying that SST is much better than the goods and services tax. “(A) multi-layer taxing (system) is worse,” he said.
The removal of the temporary ceiling price for chicken and eggs may be good for vendors but consumers will suffer the consequences, said Billy Pang, while Grace Wong said: “Without the subsidy, everything would go up tremendously.”
Another Facebook user, Stephen Muthan, said he does not expect the business community to act ethically over prices. He said most of them belong to associations, and would not work together to reduce prices.
Anwar, who is also finance minister, announced a RM393.8 billion budget for 2024, representing a RM5.8 billion increase on this year’s budget. - FMT

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