Varia Ranah - Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam

230 Varia Ranah: Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam Based on the comments posted by netizen, it is clear that the implementation of the tax was unpopular. With Malaysia having its 14 General Election in 2018, the issues have been addressed as in Pakatan Harapan’s manifesto to abolished GST if they win the General Election. Thus, after winning the General Election, the Government reduced the GST to 0% on 1 June 2018 and later abolished it and implement back the Sales Tax and Service Tax starting 1 September 2018. Case Study 2: Critical Service Incentive Allowance In a 20 December 2019 circular, the Public Service Department (PSD) announced that the government would no longer give Critical Service Incentive Allowance to 33 professions who will be joining the civil service in January 2020. These jobs include medical officers, pharmacists, dentists, nurses, engineers, air traffic controllers, architects, marine architects, legal officers, agricultural officers, vocational training officers, marine officers, research officers, among others. In the circular, the PSD noted that current staff, permanent or temporary, would not be affected by the move. It added that existing contractual staff would also continue receiving allowances as long as their contracts were renewed without any disruption in service in between. An uproar among individual, Member of Parliament (MP) and Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) erupted in social media which oppose the decisions as shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4. Most of them does not agree with the decision to abolished the allowance although PSD already gave comprehensive explanation over the decision. As the result of the negative acceptance, The Cabinet decided that the Critical Service Incentive Allowance for the civil servants be continued and that it will only decide on later. Based on the comments posted by netizen, it is clear that the implementation of the tax was unpopular Public Service Department (PSD) announced that the government would no longer give Critical Service Incentive Allowance to 33 professions who will be joining the civil service in January 2020.