Press Digest - GST brings curtain down on sundry shops

PETALING JAYA: Three sundry shops in the sleepy hollow of Bentong, Pahang, opened for the last time today, citing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the reason for winding up their businesses.
The shops – Hoong Hing Penjual Borong, Kwong Ann and Tong Seng – are typical family-run businesses and have been in existence for more than 60 years.
The owners of these shops, who are in their 60s and are computer illiterate, intended to carry on until the end of their lives but they are up against the wall with GST, and decided to close shop.
Another shop in Bentong, Chow Siew Futt, met a similar fate at the end of January, Sin Chew Daily reported today.
Meanwhile, the owner of Foh Cheong, a mini-market in the same town, is also in a spot but has yet to make up his mind on what to do next.
Eighty-year-old Lee Hoong, who inherited the shop from his father in the 1970s, dreaded thinking of the challenges posed by GST.
Lee said he has basically handed over the shop to his son Kwang Hua, 52, but still helps out in the shop daily.
He said he had contemplated winding up his business but was worried about his son's future.
"He is already in his 50s. Who would want to hire him? Closing the shop means taking away his lifeline," he lamented.
In Bukit Mertajam, the Tat Ming mini-market traded for the last time on March 25.
Its owner, Moi Kok Ming, 68, quipped that he survived several armed robberies at his shop but this time, he was totally defeated by the GST.
Federation of Sundry Goods Merchants Associations of Malaysia president Hong Chee Meng estimated that 20% of the sundry shops in the country will close shop because of GST.
He said GST is going to hit shops with turnover of less than RM500,000 a year as they cannot claim the input tax paid unless they are registered for GST.
Nevertheless, he hoped those affected would adopt the "never say die" spirit and persevere.