PEKAN : Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the government will channel more development funds to the people in the rural areas once the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is implemented in the country.
He said the matter was informed to the cabinet that development in the rural areas was among the sectors to be given priority once the government obtained additional income from the GST implementation later.
“The opposition always makes allegations that once we implement GDT, prices of all goods and services will increase but this is untrue and is an unfounded allegation.
“Not all prices of goods will increase, some will go down and some will remain at normal prices because it only replaces the existing service and sales tax.
“If the opposition says we want to increase the people’s burden, it is not true because they do not mention that if we have extra revenue, then the rural sector will be among those to receive additional allocation and I have informed this to the cabinet,” he said when speaking at the Risda’s national level dividend presentation 2014 at Dewan Sri Perdana, International College of Automotive (Icam) here today.
Also present were prime minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal and Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob.
Najib said the move would also enable the government to ensure the equity of rural development with that in urban areas.
“This can ensure that development is made in a balanced and inclusive way so that the people in the urban and rural areas can benefit from the progress and well-being fairly and justly.
“We do not want to be like certain countries where its national capitals are developed with dense population but the rural areas are marginalised with no progress or development taking place,” he added. – BERNAMA