{"id":14042,"date":"2022-05-31T22:36:23","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T14:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=14042"},"modified":"2022-05-31T22:36:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T14:36:24","slug":"ismail-sabri-downplays-talk-of-early-ge-cites-inflation-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=14042","title":{"rendered":"Ismail Sabri downplays talk of early GE, cites inflation risks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kuala Lumpur, May 31<\/strong> — Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has downplayed calls for an early election, citing a rise in food prices and other living costs, Nikkei reported today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An election is not due until 2023 but Ismail has been facing pressure from some in Umno to call an early vote to capitalize on its resurgent popularity in recent state polls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ismail told Nikkei in an interview he will wait for \u201cthe right time\u201d to call an election, given inflationary pressures partly stemming from the Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"early\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are now facing a period of increasing inflation with high prices\u2026 do you think this is the right time?\u201d<\/em> Ismail was quoted by Nikkei as saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bank Negara Malaysia expects headline inflation to average between 2.2% and 3.2% this year, with food costs up 4.1% in April. Earlier this month, the central bank unexpectedly raised its key interest rate to cool inflationary pressures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government has introduced price control measures, but the cost of subsidies has weighed on its coffers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ismail told Nikkei the government was keen on re-introducing a goods and services tax (GST).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Umno government introduced the GST in 2015, but it was scrapped three years later by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad\u2019s Pakatan Harapan administration after voters blamed the 6% consumption tax for rising costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ismail said the government was aware of the GST\u2019s unpopularity, but had limited options, noting it had lost RM20 billion (US$4.57 billion) in annual revenue after the tax was abolished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government would target a GST rate that did not burden the people, but was not so low that it \u201cdefeats the purpose of expanding tax revenue\u201d<\/em>, he told Nikkei.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government is expected to spend RM28 billion on fuel subsidies alone in 2022, more than double the RM11 billion spent last year, in addition to subsidies for cooking oil, sugar, and flour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NMT<\/a> as reported by Reuters<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kuala Lumpur, May 31 — Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has downplayed calls for an…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation","category-politics"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FW1238382_USA22_14052022_PM_ASEAN_US-lpr.jpg",1000,750,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FW1238382_USA22_14052022_PM_ASEAN_US-lpr-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FW1238382_USA22_14052022_PM_ASEAN_US-lpr-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FW1238382_USA22_14052022_PM_ASEAN_US-lpr-768x576.jpg",640,480,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FW1238382_USA22_14052022_PM_ASEAN_US-lpr.jpg",640,480,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FW1238382_USA22_14052022_PM_ASEAN_US-lpr.jpg",1000,750,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FW1238382_USA22_14052022_PM_ASEAN_US-lpr.jpg",1000,750,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FW1238382_USA22_14052022_PM_ASEAN_US-lpr.jpg",1000,750,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FW1238382_USA22_14052022_PM_ASEAN_US-lpr.jpg",1000,750,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/FW1238382_USA22_14052022_PM_ASEAN_US-lpr.jpg",633,475,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Nation<\/a> Politics<\/a>","tag_info":"Politics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14043,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14042\/revisions\/14043"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}