KUCHING: The public are advised to exercise financial prudence and spend within their budget during the festive seasons.
Santubong MP Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar, who gave this advice, said prudence is essential to avoid facing financial difficulties after the festive period.
“The most important thing is to look at one’s own financial capacity. Others may be able to spend more because he or she has bigger capacity,” he said during an exclusive interview with New Sarawak Tribune reporter.
“Do not follow others. Spend within one’s financial capacity and capability, for clothing, house furnishing, food, drink and other things…just get what you need,” he said.
He also advised consumers to not be tempted by the many advertisers in the media and friends on the various things for sale during the festive season period.
“In terms of food and beverages or ordering food from caterers…It’s better to order less than to get in excessive amount which would go to waste if not consumed,” he said.
“No one is going to complain if you don’t serve certain things or anything. Most of the guests who come to visit us are not really for the food that we serve but to meet and chit chat,” he said.
He furthermore explained that nowadays prices of goods are spiralling up as the value of the Ringgit is getting lower.
“Even the annual salary adjustment is not able offset the increase in the prices of essential food items.
“The value of ringgit has plummeted since May 2018 and this seems to be the trend – going down… due to depressed Ringgit vis a vis the USD,” he stated.
“We are importing a lot of items and goods from overseas which use USD as medium of exchange and we can’t avoid that as a world trading nation,” he further explained.
“From previous experience the SST tax system is subject to abuse, the middlemen, bulk dealers and traders are able to manipulate prices of goods, unlike GST which kept everyone ‘in line’,” he pointed out.
He also said that the consumers are at the mercy of the system. Thus, they must be selective on their purchases.
“We do not have strong consumerism sense and NGOs in Sarawak. Hence individuals must be vigilant,” said Wan Junaidi.
Meanwhile, Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said that during the festive period, one should be cautious of overspending.
“Managing one’s household finance is a must have skill for all irrespective of one’s income status, more so for those from the low-income group,” she said.
“Planning household expenditure so as not to overspend and end up in debt, learning to prioritise, making the most from the hard-earned money by looking for best buy or bargain or factory price,” she further explained.
“For festive season, please spend within your budget, there is no point in overspending to be happy for a few days then feeling miserable at the end of the month or forthcoming month,” advised Fatimah.
