Jeffrey wants Sabah to continue to defer sales tax on seafood exports

 

The Sabah government suspended sales tax on seafood exports from May to December last year.

KOTA KINABALU: Deputy chief minister Jeffrey Kitingan says he will appeal to the state finance ministry to defer the state sales tax (SST) on seafood exports once again.

This is after Sandakan MP Vivian Wong slammed the Sabah government following its move to commence the collection of the tax by this month.

Kitingan, who is also Sabah agriculture and fisheries minister, said he sympathised with the industry players, noting that the Covid-19 situation has remained unchanged since last August.

“I have not changed my stance on this issue (but) unfortunately the topic of tax is not under my ministry but falls under the (state) finance ministry,” he said in a statement here today.

He said the SST was suspended from May to December last year and the fishing industry should not be asked to pay any backdated taxes now.

“The issue of deferring the tax until the economic situation improves was discussed at length with Sabah chief minister Hajiji Noor, who is also state finance minister, last year.

“Both ministries agreed and decided that it was best to postpone the implementation of the SST on fishery commodities export at the time.

“Since the economy is yet to fully recover, I will try again to persuade the finance ministry to consider postponing the tax again,” Kitingan said.

Wong had last week criticised the state government over its move to backdate the collection of the SST on seafood exports, which she charged was “a clear renege on the decision to postpone the implementation of the SST”.

In a statement, she said the state government had last August announced that it will defer the SST until the economy improves.

The decision was made after local fishermen and the business community appealed for its postponement in view of the devastating effects of the pandemic.

However, she said, a letter dated Jan 5 from the state finance ministry stated that all companies involved in seafood exports must settle the SST by Jan 28, which was backdated to the period from May 2021 to December 2021.

Those concerned were told that they will face a penalty if they fail to do so, she added.

“It is absolutely unfair to force the industry to cough up backdated SST payment when the government itself announced the postponement of the SST last year.

“I believe the industry has been misled and the authorities are holding industry stakeholders to ransom by refusing to let their container shipment to be exported until the full payment is settled,” Wong said. - FMT