By Atiqah Ismail
GOMBAK, 14 MAY 2015: The Students’ Representative Council last night held a dialogue session on ‘GST: Between Economic Growth and Social Justice’ at The Square, HS Building.
The speakers for the event were the CEO of Selangor State Economic Office who is also the Member of Parliament for Pandan, Rafizi Ramli, and Thinker Panelist of Jabatan Hal Ehwal Khas (JASA), Lokman Adam. The session was chaired by Afiqah Zulkifli.
The event was intended to create an intellectual discussion between the students and the experts from the industry to promote the culture of ‘Iqra among IIUM communities as suggested by the University.
The forum started with Lokman Adam giving an explanation on the fundamentals of Goods and Services Tax (GST). He stressed that the GST is a new type of government tax to replace the old ‘Sales and Services Tax’ (SST) which can go as high as 20%. The GST can reduce the price of certain goods due to the lower percentage of tax consumption by companies.
Meanwhile, Rafizi Ramli said that the introduction of GST as a consumption tax was based on the value-added tax (VAT) concept known to other countries, especially in Europe. He described with a clear example of added GST progressions from the manufacturer to the wholesalers then retailers and lastly affecting the consumers.
Over 300 students from different background of studies including from other universities attended the forum.
The forum had shown the level of awareness among IIUM communities with regards to current issues especially on matters related to GST from the academic perspective.***