GST to help make economy strong, competitive, says Najib

KUALA LUMPUR: The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) will not only help make the economy strong and competitive, it will also reform the tax system to make it more transparent and efficient, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
He said the GST was also fair as those who tried to evade paying it would be easy to track down.
"Although there are 12 million workers in Malaysia, only 1.2 million pay taxes. Thus 28 million Malaysians depend on the 1.2 million tax payers. This ratio only exists in Malaysia," he said at a briefing session on the GST here today.
Najib said raising taxes would result in more problems and because of this the government introduced the GST which was fairer.
"The consumers will be taxed only if they buy goods and services. The government has considered the burden on the rakyat before deciding to introduce the GST," he said.
He said the GST was not an additional tax but a replacement for the sales and services tax.
The government, he said, has estimated that if prices were to increase with the introduction of GST, they would only be by 1.8%.
The government would undertake strong enforcement action and increase the number of enforcement officers for the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism, he said.
"Action will be taken against those who increase the prices arbitrarily," he said.
Najib also reprimanded companies which had not register for GST despite the government's incentives for them to do so.
"Don't rush to register at end of March 2015. Plan early to ensure the smooth implementation of the GST," he said. – Bernama