The government says it has no plans to reintroduce the goods and services tax (GST) in Malaysia, not just in the immediate future but until the country is ready for it, when the minimum monthly wage has doubled from the RM1,500 it is at now.
According to prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the GST will only be reimplemented if the minimum wage threshold is at RM3,000-RM4,000, as Bernama reports. While acknowledging that the tax system is efficient and would help the government expand its coffers with higher revenue collection, he said the poor should not be burdened with such a tax system.
“I agree, GST is the most transparent and efficient tax system, but my view is, give it some time, some years, (we must) make sure that the wage threshold increases to the minimum of RM3,000-RM4,000, then we can adjust the policy,” he said, reiterating the indication he had made last year that there were no plans to bring back GST in the short to medium term.
Anwar, who is also the finance minister, said that the implementation of GST has been an ongoing topic for decades, even during his time as finance minister in the 1990s. He disagreed at that time, believing that addressing corruption involving billions of ringgit was the priority.
The PM’s sentiments were echoed by ministry of investment, trade and industry (MITI) deputy minister Liew Chin Tong, who said that while GST is transparent, it taxes everyone, rich and poor. “He (the PM) made it clear that GST is only going to be implemented after a few years when the income level rises to an acceptable level,” he said.
Liew said that at present, only around 15% of Malaysians earn enough to qualify them for the threshold to pay income tax, and that needed to be changed. “Together, we should aim to create a society in which at least 60% of Malaysians earn an income that qualifies them to pay income taxes,” he said.
The tax was first introduced in April 2015 at a rate of 6% (which reduced prices for some cars) but was scrapped in 2018 after the then-new Pakatan Harapan government came to power, replaced by the 10% sales and service tax (SST). Despite the political changes that has happened since then, GST was never brought back, even though that possibility has been mooted several times.
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This would be almost fornever as informed only 15% of Malaysian qualify for tax – well that depends on weather those are genuine to declare their income as we know that some connected Billionaires in Malaysia don’t even need to pay taxes.
OMG… Dog-The-Wee must be sad
How come we have T20 – 20% rich people. but only 15% paying tax including M40? am i not economically sound or some error here?
I have the same question. I’m M40, obviously very much outside of the 20% rich people income bracket. Why am I paying tax then?
Does it mean at least 25% of the T20 are dodging taxes by whatever means? Or is it just one deputy minister talking more kok adding to boss punya talk kok?
Get money by dividend. No need to pay tax.
Refer my name
Anwar menang rakyat senang
Dengar boleh, percaya jangan
Refer my name… you all blaming bossku due to GST implementations, why now Uturn???
The better way is to reduce income tax, and impose a low GST… like 3%.
If minimum wage increase to rm3k, the inflation on the ground will equally be bad as businesses will try and recoup the expenses.
Also please stop paying non essential services government servant with excessive increment without actual performance. Pay more to doctors teachers police is fine. Those work in “jabatan” should not come under blanket increment .
Pity those who are about to retire or retired living on the mediocre savings they had save throughout their life.
Previously believing Gomen RM240k enough for 20 years giving them RM1k a month.
Now with so many factors, living on RM1k a month is not even possible.
Minimum Wage RM3k?
There’s a saying….. Cry also no tears ah….
Raising the min wage without productivity increase won’t solve the problem. Where do you think employers get additional money to pay the salary increase if not raising prices? Prices will increase in tandem. It just making cost of living unnecessary high.
by the time minimum wage hits RM3k, PMX is not longer the prime minister. PMX just want to take the shortcut to tax T20.
with all the lies…. are you going to believe this one too?
even today, with minimum wage below 2K, many factories are moving to cheaper countries like philipines and thailand, or even vietname. Malaysia is simply not competitive anymore in terms of cheap labour. imagine if minimum wage forcibly raised to 3K, most factories would just move their entire operations overseas to neighbouring countries.
That’s where he doesn’t get it. You can’t be a manufacturing and plantation based nation if you have a high minimum wage. Those are for knowledge and service based industries.
Don’t bother asking Tesla to build factories here.