GEORGE TOWN: If you object to how the money is made, don’t spend it. That is the message the Penang Consumer Protection Association (PCPA) has for PAS over its complaint about drink driving.
The association’s president, Datuk K. Koris Atan, said PAS, being part of the government now, could compel their colleagues in the administration to stop using funds from sin taxes for public expenditure, development, education or social amenities.
Instead, he said, the funds should be used only for the benefit of those who have contributed to it in the first place, namely those who consume alcoholic beverages.
Koris was commenting on a proposal by PAS information chief Kamaruzaman Mohamad that the production and sale of such beverages be suspended until the issue of drink driving is resolved.
Kamaruzaman urged the Customs Department and local authorities to suspend the sale of alcoholic beverages at 24-hour convenience stores.
He said this is necessary based on the frequency of road accidents involving drivers who were drunk.
Koris said PAS “should realise that it is un-Islamic to use funds from sin taxes”.
Sin tax is duty derived from the sale of “immoral” products such as cigarettes, alcoholic drinks and gambling.
Koris said since it is mostly non-Muslims who indulge in such activities, “it is only fair that funds from sin taxes be channelled back to them in the form of socio-economic development”.
A 2016 World Health Organisation report ranked Malaysians as the 10th biggest consumers of alcoholic drinks by litre per capita.
Koris said the government should make it its priority now to contain the Covid-19 outbreak given that the conditional movement control order is already heading towards its third month without a solution in sight.
A mistake was made on our part when we mistakenly attributed the comments to the Consumer Association of Penang (CAP), instead of the Penang Consumer Protection Association.
We have edited the headline to reflect the correct association related to the article.
Our sincerest apologies for the mistake.
