With five days to Polling Day, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has defended the Goods and Services Tax (GST) yet again, saying that it has helped the government distribute wealth to those in need.

He has previously said that Malaysia's GST rate was among the lowest in the world at 6 per cent, and that the government was able to run several financial aid programmes because of it, such as the BR1M.

GST is the reason for civil servants' salary raise

According to Channel NewsAsia, he was speaking at Lipis, an area populated by the rural poor, during his campaign in Pahang State.

As to how GST can help the poor, he said:

"The higher income group pays more if they spend more.

When they pay more tax, we can distribute (the money) to those who need aid from government."

He also said that GST is the reason why the government could raise the salary of civil servants this year.

Opposition says GST is to cover 1MDB loss

However, the opposition has condemned the tax as a ruse introduced by Najib to over the alleged loss of more than US$3.7 billion (S$4.9 billion) by sovereign wealth fund 1MDB.

In an interview wit hChannel NewsAsia, Democratic Action Party (DAP) leader Lim Guan Eng claimed that because Malaysia has "run out of money", the tax department has to "squeeze and extort as much money as they can".

He said:

"Because of your failure and incompetency, you’ve run out of your money. And now you’re sucking the people dry.”

He also claimed that as Malaysia can ill afford the additional burden of GST as it is not a high-income country.

Barisan Nasional's main competition, the Pakatan Harapan (PH) alliance, has included in their manifesto a promise to abolish the GST if they form the next government.

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1MDB chief says GST not needed to solve its problems

In a bid to counter criticisms about the fund, 1MDB chief Adul Kanda Kandasamy said that there is no need for the government to use GST revenue to settle its RM31 billion (S$10.5 billion) debt as its assets were "more than enough" to pay it off.

Previously, a domestic jury has cleared Najib of all wrongdoing in the corruption scandal.

Top image via @Norlida2014

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