PRIME Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the sales and services tax (SST) will not raise the cost of living, as speculated by his predecessor, Najib Razak. 

SST will only affect selected services, unlike the goods and services tax (GST) introduced during Najib’s administration, which is a broad-based consumption tax, the 93-year-old leader said.

“It is 10%, if you purchase. If you don’t purchase, you don’t pay. 

“Whereas GST is a tax at the source, so whether you buy or not, everything will go up in price,” Dr Mahathir said at the Parliament lobby today.

The Pakatan Harapan chairman also said the government would be looking to repeal the GST in this Parliament session. 

“We have zero-rated GST, so what we have to do now is to ensure that Parliament repeals the law.”

Najib told reporters at Parliament today that SST would raise the cost of living. Prices of goods had not come down enough even with zero-rated GST and imposing SST would be “a double whammy”, he said.

The government is to reintroduce the sales tax at 10% and service tax at 6% from September 1, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said yesterday. – July 17, 2018.