KUALA LUMPUR: The plans to change the fleet of official government cars for ministers to electric vehicles drew flak from Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.
"It was announced that the fleet of current vehicles will be changed to luxury electric vehicles specifically for the ministers.
"We just spent in 2021 and 2022 (the fleet of cars), and we were scolded for it by them.
"But now, during the transition, we don't hear a sound at all," he said in TikTok post upload after the Budget 2024 announcement in Parliament on Friday (Oct 13).
During his press conference, the Muar MP also said that given that the government has decided to do targeted subsidies, the Sales Services Tax (SST) increase from 6% to 8% would only burden the public.
“This is GST (goods and services tax), but using an increase in SST to mask it from the public from the truth?
“Even if the increase in the SST does not include the food and beverage, restaurant operators still need to spend money on other operational things," he said
He added that the increase in costs will be transferred to consumers.
The Muar MP said the targeted subsidies announced in the Budget 2024 would cause a lot of Malaysians to struggle, adding that the government still needs to consider geographical factors.
“I understand why the government wants to do targeted subsidies, but remember, a T20 family in Kelantan, for example, cannot be compared to the T20s in Klang Valley.
“Although a household making RM8,000 a month in Kelantan can be considered as T20 there, if the same family goes to Kuala Lumpur, they will be categorised as B40, which is a big gap.”
