Deputy Minister rubbishes claims that SST would amount to 16%

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Ong Kian Ming has rubbished claims that the Sales and Services Tax (SST) would amount to 16%, saying it was misconstrued.
Ong, who is the former special officer to the Finance Minister, explained that 10% was chargeable for goods purchased while 6% was for services, and that the two should not be added up as one.
"Sales tax will also be applied at the manufacturing point while the services tax is only applicable for service providers.
"It would be wrong to combine the rates and assume that it would be 16% collectively," he told reporters at the Dewan Rakyat lobby, here, today.
Ong acknowledged that there were some confusions on the mechanism of the SST among the public as well as lawmakers, adding that a briefing by the Finance Ministry would be held soon to explain the matter to the MPs.
"I think there is a little confusion of the scopes of these two taxes at the moment," he said.
The Barisan Nasional (BN) government had previously on April 1, 2015 introduced the Goods and Services (GST) to replace SST.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) has since zero-rated the GST and is expected to repeal the tax and reintroduce SST, claiming GST has burdened the rakyat with prices of many items increased since its implementation.
Ong, who is also Bangi MP, said the government was only expected to collect RM21 billion annually compared to RM42 billion per year under GST.
"GST generated a revenue of about RM42 billion a year for the government.
"But under the SST, only RM21 billion will be collected. I think this will be beneficial because it will be returned to the people," he said.