Firms under GST will be migrated to SST from Wednesday

Only manufacturers and service providers that reach a threshold value of RM500,000 a year will be taxed.

Customs director-general Subromaniam Tholasy says the department has identified between 70,000 and 80,000 manufacturing companies to be listed under SST 2.0. (Bernama pic)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Customs Department expects to automatically migrate companies that have registered under the goods and services tax (GST) regime to the sales and service tax (SST) beginning tomorrow and will alert them via email, Customs director-general Subromaniam Tholasy said.

He said the department has identified between 70,000 and 80,000 manufacturing companies to be listed under SST 2.0, from 472,000 companies listed during the 6% GST regime.

“During the GST implementation process, other than manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers also had to register.

“But with the move to reinstate the SST, only manufacturers and service providers that reach a threshold value of RM500,000 a year will be taxed,” he told reporters during a briefing on the transition from the GST to the SST here today.

The event was organised by Salihin Consulting Group Sdn Bhd and the Malaysian Association of Tax Accountants.

Subromaniam said to date, the department had trained some 5,000 manufacturers and would go into full gear before the tax commences on Sept 1 this year.

The federal government earlier today tabled the Sales Tax Bill 2018 and Services Tax Bill 2018 (SST Bills) for their first reading in the Dewan Rakyat.

In the explanatory statement to these two Bills, the government said they were seeking to provide for the charging, levying and collecting of the sales and services tax, and for matters connected with it.

He said in providing a smooth transition from the GST to the SST, the Customs Department needed to begin its hand-holding programme even before the bills were approved.

He also said that by next week, the department would upload the list of 6,400 goods to be proposed for the sales tax.

On the penalty for tax evaders, he said it had been “improved”.

The punishment under the now-defunct Sales Tax 1972, he said, was a fine of not more than RM50,000 or up to three years’ imprisonment or both, but first-time offenders now face a fine of between 10 and 20 times the sales tax amount or up to five years’ imprisonment or both.

“But for an ordinary offence, don’t worry, we are not the type to choke people,” he said. -FMT