Drope said the ideal tax rate is the rate at which taxes can be raised as high as possible without driving down revenues. “That’s really what we’re looking for in most countries and Malaysia.”
He said raising taxes on tobacco products is arguably the most effective and straightforward solution to reduce consumption.
Those seem like contradictory goals. If you’re looking to maintain revenue on the sale of your poison then you are not looking to minimize the customers of your poison.
“When we raise excise taxes on tobacco products, it drives up the price and when the price goes up, consumers react in several ways: young people don’t start to use tobacco products, and people who already smoke or use tobacco stop or cut down.
This really has an enormous effect on consumption, and it really drives down the amount of tobacco use in the world,” Drope said.
When you drive up the price you also predominately impose a burden on the impoverished. It’s not an equitable solution. An alternative option is to constantly increase the minimum age to purchase so that anyone alive today under the age of 21 will never be able to legally buy a cigarette. This does nothing to help those who currently struggle with their use, and some publicly funded supplementary programs for their benefit are also warranted, but this would help keep new addictions low.
I don’t know much about those who left, except one guy who’s head of one of Singapore’s largest banks, but I do know what’s left behind (the people I work with) isn’t very good.
The 2% hike in service tax rate applies to all taxable services (except for telco, food & beverage (F&B), parking and logistics) and expansion of scope to include logistics, brokerage, underwriting and karaoke services. (source)
So logistics previously did not require service tax, but will be taxed 6% come this March. And why do I come across reports that TCM will be more expensive because of this?
Yup, but just now I found this rather recent article, saying the hike should not have a big effect to shops selling TCM, or even their consultation services, since most of them don’t have the revenue (500k per year) to require SST collection.
Their medicines are expensive not because of tax (in fact TCM is zero-rated), but due to our weak currency and lack of practitioners.
Ah I see. I wonder if it’s a lingering effect of GST. I recall many medicine shops had to close down as the GST made things too convulated for the elderly shopkeepers.
It’s easier to track the “underground economy” with GST or e-invoicing. Some shady businesses might have closed because Customs and IRB are involved in the GST system. Since we can’t touch GST now, this govt plan to introduce e-invoice in stages, which should have a similar effect.
I see why a Chinese newspaper would try push against any tax against cheap imported goods into any country.
I see no problem with this - its ~1.2 years of inflation ontop of cheap imports like Temu and Ali Express out of China to try keep international manufacturers competitive. If you can’t afford underwear because its no longer make by exploitive means so be it.
What’s more funny is Malaysian already enjoy the lower price of imported goods and it directly harm the local merchant and also one of the many cause of currency depreciation, but netizen rather enjoy a low price now.
I’m guessing most of the new restaurants will be in Sabah and Sarawak. To those who think “that’s gonna make our diabetes problem worse”, well, given the smaller portions and yet pricey meals, I don’t think people are over-indulging on McD food.
myeconomy
Hot
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.