I READ in your report, “Economy is main priority” (March 12), that there is a possibility of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) being reintroduced as the new government gets down to work on policies to address the current economic slowdown in the country and the worries that people feel about the future.
With the sharp drop in oil prices and disruptive impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on work and travel across the world, we can expect difficult times ahead because, being an open economy, Malaysia will be affected by the fall in demand in our export markets. The policy response should be to increase government spending in a counter cyclical move to generate a higher level of economic activity especially through investing on projects that will add to the future productive capacity of the country while creating immediate jobs and incomes for our workers and generating business opportunities for suppliers, contractors, SMEs, consulting firms and etc. along the value chain. This will save them from bankruptcy.
