ONLY 15% of the country’s 14.6 million labour force earned enough to pay personal income tax last year, said Deputy Finance Minister I Othman Aziz in Parliament today.

“Even though we have a registered workforce of 14.6 million, those who pay taxes are only 2.27 million,” said Othman when rounding up the debate on amendments to the income tax law.

He said the introduction of the goods and services tax was, therefore, timely.

“I feel that the government made the decision to introduce GST so that whoever uses these goods and services, they will pay accordingly.”

He also announced that beginning next year, only those earning RM3,100 and above a month would be taxed, compared with the current RM2,851.

The move follows the government’s decision to introduce a cut by 2% for individual taxpayers next year.

“This means that now, those earning under RM3,000 don’t need to pay taxes, so with the 2% reduction, it will ease the people’s burden,” said Othman. – November 29, 2017.