By BERNAMA / Pic By MUHD AMIN NAHARUL

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Razak said Malaysia will become a country with deficit without collecting RM45 billion in revenue through the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Najib, who is also finance minister, said without the GST, the country is unlikely to be able to collect a revenue of RM45 billion annually, which is being returned to the people in the form of educational aid, assistance to smallholders and fishermen, as well as the 1Malaysia People’s Aid. “If the Opposition wants to abolish the GST to be replaced with the SST (Sales and Services Tax), that’s a lie. If we cannot get a revenue of RM45 billion, the country will become a deficit country. We know that the country’s debt is getting worse, but if there is no revenue, the country’s debt will increase and become like Greece,” he said when speaking at the Welfare Body of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers (Bakti) with Students programme in Seri Perdana, Putrajaya, yesterday. Najib said Malaysia’s GST rate is among the lowest in the world at 6% with 164 other countries also implementing it, the latest in India. Malaysia started implementing the GST on April 1, 2015. Also present at the event was the prime minister’s wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, who is also Bakti president.