More than 450,000 companies registered for GST as of September

KUALA LUMPUR: There were 454,609 business entities registered under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as at end-September 2017.
According to the Economic Report 2017/18 released in conjunction with the Budget 2018 announcement, the bulk of registrants were in the wholesale, retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles sector accounted for 34.2 per cent.
This was followed by the construction (17.7 per cent) and manufacturing (12.4 per cent) sectors, it added.
When the GST was introduced on April 2015, 553 types of goods and services were zero-rated, while another 25 were exempted from it.
"The government continues to engage with the private sector to further improve the implementation of the GST to ensure it is consistent with global best practices," said the report.
Among the recent changes that enabled Malaysia to be more competitive and attractive to domestic as well as foreign direct investments from July 1, 2017, was prescribed services supplied to overseas customers with goods for export.
Claims and warranty repairs made by distributors to overseas manufacturers were also considered as cost recovery and not subjected to GST.
Meanwhile, the Customs Department also carried out regular audits and tax investigations with 14,578 tax evasion offences identified between April 2015 and July 2017.
Of this, 2,097 cases were prosecuted, with 928 seeing fines imposed.
Another measure to enhance compliance and optimise resources in administering the GST was the introduction of the GST Electronic Information System on July 1, 2017, with 1,000 selected business premises in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor included in the pilot project. — Bernama