Supplementary Notes: The Goods & Services Tax (GST) is a general tax that affects ALL classes of consumers, be they poor or rich. Take for example 5%. If you are rich, you pay 5% of the total price of a good you purchase to the government. And if you are poor, you too pay 5% of the total price of a good you purchase to the government. If for instance, this percentage is increased to 7%, the poor would definitely be the ones who suffer more as they would most likely be the ones who feel a larger impact on their reduction in real income. So, unless the government is actually paying these poor families cash or tax rebates DIRECTLY, there's no reason to say that increasing a tax percentage can benefit the poor. And if the government claims that increasing taxes serves as a policy to increase the pool of money to take care of the poor better, isn't it moving towards a welfare state, where the rich are heavily taxed to provide for the poor? Also, as stated earlier, the GST is a general tax which affects ALL classes of consumers. It is often largely debated whether the government's purpose to increase such taxes is to increase its reserves for the country and boost an image of an effective government leading a rich country to its international neighbours.

Note: This is purely fictional! It's a hypothetical situation created to stimulate analytical thoughts in our holiday-rusty brains..=P I wouldn't want to see GST increase though, personally.