The finance ministry has said there are no plans to reintroduce the goods and services tax (GST) anytime soon, reiterating what prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said in June this year. This is in response to a question from Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong (BN–Ayer Hitam) on why the government is not reintroducing GST.
According to the ministry, the government has no intention to bring back GST because the income of the people in general is still low for them to be subjected to a broad-based tax system. It added that the current sales and service tax (SST) provides a quicker fiscal impact for the government compared to reintroducing GST, which would require a longer preparation period of up to two years so companies have time to update their systems to be GST-compliant.
“Apart from that, SST is also seen as more progressive compared to GST, as the expanded SST structure is targeted whereby commonly consumed goods and services are generally not taxed,” the ministry wrote in a parliamentary reply.
The ministry also pointed out that after the revised SST system was implemented on July 1, 2025, the total number of items exempted, or rated at 0%, is 1,826. By comparison, 607 items were exempted with the GST system before it was abolished in 2018. It added that the current expansion of service tax covers 70% of services listed under the Malaysia Standard Industrial Classification (MSIC) code, compared to 76% under GST.
“The larger number of exempted goods and the relatively lower percentage of services taxed under SST compared to GST reflect the government’s concern for public welfare while ensuring fiscal sustainability,” it wrote.
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ONLY B10 IQzero keep crabbing about GST
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SST is even worse…tax upon tax along the supply chain without any tax credit! GST is the way to go…for essential items, just zero rated the item. there’s not double…triple…quadruple tax along the supply chain like current ancient SST mechanism. Thats why all developed countries use GST/VAT instead of SST. If dont want to admit najib regime got it right just name it Mahal dah ni tax ke apa ke….dont be buduh sombong lah …mahal dah ni!
Anwar menang rakyat senang
takut kena boo yer…
Tak habis habis nak tax rakyat nih. Dah la…semua brg dah naik…nih cakap pulak nak tax pulak. Reduce income tax for the lower bracket la. Improve education system la…country is having brain drain. Org dah apply uni luar negara scholarship…padahal UPU lambat siao.
Ppl income will be low as long G’men don’t do the RIGHT thing! Period.
with or without GST, people are already low income. the removal of subsidies and expanded SST, people are already suffering. So no need to pretend to be empathetic.
What an (unspeakable). Let’s not reintroduce non-cascading GST at 6% or lower. But let’s add more types of cascading taxes of between 8-10% that will double- and triple-tax end consumers.
Mahathir knew this sort of thing would happen but got slammed for refusing to hand over the reins. Now everyone can understand why Mahathir said the country would worsen under this guy. It’s not because he wants to destroy the country, but because he’s simply not smart.
Do not attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity. That much is clear.
GST is more transparent than SST.
Introduce GST at lower rate, and ensure the tax refund system are sorted – should be good.
People who play up sentiment against GST (and preferring SST) are either uninformed about tax systems, or wish to manipulate the public (emotionally), or want to skirt around their responsibility to pay tax.
the math is simple, the not-so-educated-easily-tricked b40 prefer sst, because when they buy nasi lemak from kedai makan they no need to pay sst, price increase is greedy business owner’s deed, not government punya pasal. whereas if apply gst system, they will feel the money draining from their very own pocket, so they will topple the government.
While I understand the optics of seeing the tax clearly stated in your receipt being a huge mental barrier to accepting tax, the rationale given by the government simply doesn’t make any sense. The reason why the first GST implementation got a huge backlash isn’t exactly because the people can’t afford it, but rather the tax code is too complicated and the tax return system is too slow. Reduce the complexity, introduce at a lower rate, cut some taxes elsewhere, and speed up the refund process… I don’t think can be any worse than SST. If they wanted to stay at the 6% level, they can always cut the income tax rate on the lower income bracket to balance things out a little. Or they could always just re-introduce it at 3-4%, which I think is very reasonable and lower levy than the opaque SST system. Also, I’m not sure how SST is less “broad based” given that the government had already expanded SST coverage quite significantly… I no longer see how “narrower” SST is when compared to GST.