THE bill to repeal the goods and services tax (GST) was passed in the Dewan Rakyat today, marking another nail in the three-year-old consumption tax system’s coffin.
The bill was passed by a voice vote.
The outgoing GST system which was introduced in April 2015 by the former Barisan Nasional (BN) government, will be replaced by the sales and services tax (SST) system.
“Finally, GST has died,” Fnance Minister Lim Guan Eng said during the third reading of the Goods and Services Tax (Repeal) Bill 2018.
“Al-Fatihah to GST,” an unidentified MP called out in reply, to laughter from the floor and in the media room.
The Sales Tax Bill 2018 and Service Tax Bill 2018 were passed by the Dewan Rakyat yesterday and today, respectively.
Both bills still need to be passed in the Dewan Negara which is controlled by BN. BN has 29 senators, controlling the majority in the Dewan Negara. Pakatan Harapan has six senators, other political parties have 16 senators between them and 19 seats are vacant.
The single-tier tax regime to be implemented on September 1 will charge 10% for any taxable goods and 6% for any taxable services. The sales threshold for service tax registration purposes to RM500,000 annually for all taxable services.
Lim earlier today said he couldn’t guarantee that prices of goods will not increase once the new tax is in place but he believed the impact of SST would be half that of GST.
He said only 43.5% of services were subject to the SST, compared with GST’s 64.8% of services subjected to the goods and services tax (GST).
He said the number of goods and services not subjected to SST was 10 times more.
The RM17 billion the government expected to collect from the tax this year would be returned to the people, he said.
A total of 5,443 items would be exempted from SST, compared with GST’s 540 items. – August 8, 2018.
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I for sure would never vote BN their buried for good ..period.
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