CRY BEFORE FRY

A negative campaign against GST introduction in India 

      MALAYSIA introduced GST with a 5% rate in April 2015. A survey conducted by JobStreet.com revealed certain interesting facets.

- An alarming 90% of the respondents don't think they can cope with their daily expenses since the implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST).

- The weight of GST has prompted significant changes in the daily routine of the survey respondents. More than half of them at 56%, said they have minimized having lunch with their colleagues, while 47% of them started packing food from home. Some have also resorted to other frugal activities, such as utilizing the pantries more frequently and carpooling to control their expenses.

- A number of respondents are exploring new ways of generating a better income in order to cope with the upsurge in prices. Some 35% of them are considering changing their jobs, while 33% of them are looking into other alternatives, such as part-time and freelance jobs.

- 41% of companies have encountered increasing demands in employee wages since the execution of GST; however, only 19% of the total number of employers has offered salary increments.

     In Canada, which has a Federal system, there is a GST, which applies to the whole of Canada. There is an HST in some provinces, which applies to the same goods and services as the GST, but at a different rate. And some provinces have a provincial sales tax or a retail sales tax in addition to GST. We are perhaps into the fourth dimension with a Central GST and a State GST - with total chaos assured.

(From DDT - Taxindiaonline dated 30-June-2015)