Some already charging 6% ‘GST’

Certain businesses in Klang Valley have tweaked their cash registers.

PETALING JAYA: Some businesses in the Klang Valley are already issuing receipts that include a GST charge at 6% although the Goods and Services Tax is not due for implementation until 2015.

This has alarmed some consumers, but according to an official at the Customs Department, no law has been broken.

The charge is actually for the currently applicable service tax, sometimes printed as “Govt Tax” on cash register receipts.

Apparently, some establishments have tweaked their cash registers in preparation for April 1, 2015, the date the GST will be introduced, as announced by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak in his budget speech last October.

GST, a consumption tax on goods and services, will be levied at every stage of the chain from supply up to retail.

Malaysians currently pay a sale or service tax on certain goods or services.

Sales Tax was introduced in February 1972 as a single-stage consumption tax. It is charged either at the input or output stage.

The general rate for Sales Tax is 10%, but this is reduced to 5% for building materials and foodstuff classified as “non-essential”. Furthermore, there there are specific rates for petroleum products.

Service Tax was introduced in 1975 as a form of indirect tax imposed on specified goods and services, including tobacco, food served in certain restaurants and services rendered at hotels.

The service tax rate was 5% until January 2011, when it was raised to 6%.