Rosmah: GST can benefit ladies of leisure, too 
MalaysiaKini.com
Feb 23, 2015  
By Anne Muhammad 

Paying through the nose for your haute couture dresses and up-do? Worry not, the goods and services tax (GST) may be the answer.

The prime minister’s wife Rosmah Mansor said that with the GST, bespoke tailors and house call hairdressers will no longer be able to overcharge and use “sales tax” as an excuse.

The GST will replace the sales and services tax (SST).

“We housewives always become victims. Before we could tailor a baju kurung for RM500, and even then it is considered expensive, but now to make a nice one... well, we have no choice because we need to wear proper clothes to functions...

“They (the tailors) are profiteering, but they try to evade this by claiming it is service tax,” she said.

She said this during a briefing on the GST with Welfare Association of the Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers (Bakti).

‘Housewives like us’    

She said this is a reality faced by wives of “civil servants” like Bakti members who do not have their own incomes.

Rosmah lamented that she and her peers who do not sew their own clothes not only need to fork up for tailors, but also hairdressers.

“For people like us, even a RM200 hike will hurt,” she said.

She said that washing and dyeing hair is now “expensive and is a luxury” with hairdressers overcharging simply because they provide the services in the comfort of their clients’ homes.

“Now if I want to dye my hair at home, the hairdresser charges me RM1,200. Wow, that is expensive but they say the price is different in the store. It’s pricey because it is home service...

“They can charge three, four or five times the price citing ‘home service’.

“I am speaking on behalf of housewives. Bakti believes that home services must be subject to (pricing) guidelines,” she said.

Despite the troubles that she has to go through, Rosmah said she cannot make too much noise out of respect for her husband, Prime Minister and Finance Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

“I can’t ask Najib, he wouldn’t answer.”

Responding to her call, Deputy Finance Minister Ahmad Maslan - who was at the briefing - said he would bring the proposal on "home service" guidelines to Putrajaya.

The GST will be implemented on Apr 1 at six percent. 

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