Finance ministry to brief MPs on SST, says Wong Chen

The government will reintroduce sales and services tax (SST) on Sept 1, despite a drop in tax collection.

Subang Jaya MP Wong Chen says the parliamentarians want a better understanding of the SST.

SUBANG JAYA: PKR’s Subang MP Wong Chen said the finance ministry is expected to brief parliamentarians next week on the implementation of the sales and services tax (SST).

“We want to have a better understanding of issues on SST before the bill is tabled,” he said after attending a Tabung Harapan fundraising event today.

He said the government was expected to table the bill on SST on the last few days of sitting.

The current Dewan Rakyat sitting, which is the first after the May 9 polls, runs till Aug 16.

Last week, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the SST rate would be fixed at 10% for the sale of products and 6% for services.

SST will be enforced on Sept 1.

The Pakatan Harapan (PH) government has said it would be getting less revenue from the SST compared to the goods and services tax (GST). GST has been zero-rated under the new administration.

Wong also said that the government should have a discussion with the Malaysian Association of Tax Accountants (MATA) over their concerns for the SST.

“They have stated their concerns on this tax system and we hope to have a dialogue session with them so that we can listen to what they have to say,” he said.

MATA was reported as saying that they were worried the 10% SST rate might burden the consumers as manufacturers would increase the price of raw materials sold to factories.

The association’s president Abd Aziz Abu Bakar said the factories would then raise their prices to retailers who would pass the additional cost to consumers.

Meanwhile, Wong also said that the backbenchers would be pushing the government to form the select committees as soon as possible.

“There must be an indication as to when they want these committees to start work.

“And it should be done before the tabling of the budget (in November) because some funding must be allocated to staff in the committees,” he said. - FMT