Lim Kit Siang to query Tun Tan Siew Sin about 5% Sales Tax
DAP Member of Parliament for Bandar Melaka, Mr. Lim Kit Siang, will query the Finance Minister, Tun Tan Siew Sin, on the 5% Sales Tax in next week’s Parliament meeting.
His questions on the 5% Sales Tax are:
1. To ask the Minister of Finance whether the Government would abolish the 5% Sales Tax in view of the hardship it has caused the poor in the kampongs, new villages, estates and urban slums.
2. To ask the Minister of Finance how many representations, appeals or resolutions the Government has received to date appealing or urging for the repeal of the 5% Sales Tax, and to give the names of these organizations or persons who have spent these representations, appeals or resolutions.
Mr.Lim has also submitted more questions on education, government clerical examinations and the Kuala Lumpur city. They are:
3. To ask the Prime Minister for the reason for the continued high rate of failures in government clerical examinations; and to state what steps are being taken to provide adequate training courses for government clerks to enable them to be emplaced on the permanent staff; and to state whether it is true that one important cause for the high percentage of failure is that the texts on office procedure are in English while papers are set in Bahasa Malaysia.
4. To ask the Minister of Local Government the total number of car park attendants in the employ of the Kuala Lumpur City Hall, their racial breakdown, their salaries and working conditions.
5. To ask the Minister of Local Government whether he is aware of the dissatisfaction among the Kuala Lumpur City Hall car park attendants over their salaries and working conditions, and state what progress has been made to reach settlement with the ANULAE (Amalgamated National Union of Local Authorities’ Employees) over their claims for improved salaries and better working conditions.
6. To ask the Minister of Local Government whether he is aware that the City Council of Kuala Lumpur does not remove rubbish and garbage regularly from the town daily, and causing dirty, unhygienic conditions; and whether he would order a review and reorganization of the garbage collection system so that all parts of Kuala Lumpur is cleared at least once a day to maintain a clean city.
7. To ask the Minister of Trade and Industry to list the pioneer industries which have their pioneer certificates withdrawn for non-starting on their projects; giving particulars for each such proposed pioneer industry: (i) total capital investment envisaged; (ii) total number of workers to be employed if the pioneer industry had been in full production.
8. To ask the Minister of Education to list the schools which have 100% failures in the Standard V Assessment Test in 1971; starting the number of Std.V students each school had.
9. To ask the Minister of Education whether he is aware of the complaint by the National Union of Teachers that 50 percent of the Jawi teachers in the primary schools were not proficient enough to teach the subject, as they have not received any formal training in the teaching of Jawi, and in many cases “Jawi periods have turned out to be sessions where teachers learn from pupils”; and to state what steps his Ministry has taken to ensure that every Jawi teacher is competent and qualified.
10. To ask the Minister of Local Government the backlog number of applicants for low-cost housing units in Kuala Lumpur City, and to state what urgent steps are being taken to meet the grave housing needs of the poor in Kuala Lumpur City.
11. To ask the Minister of Communications whether there are any plans to intensify domestic flights by MAS; and if so, to give details.
12. To ask the Minister of Communications whether there are any immediate plans to introduce internal flights by MAS between Kuala Lumpur and Sitiawan; and if so, to give details; and if not, to state whether this matter is being considered by the MAS authorities.