Rice packaging to be SST exempted too
ALOR STAR: Plastic bags used to pack rice will also be exempted from the Sales and Services Tax (SST), Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said.
He said this would ensure that manufacturers or traders could reduce the cost of packaging rice, which was also among the items that were tax exempted.
“There was a request from manufacturers and sellers for it (plastic packaging) not to be taxed. Since rice is exempt from taxes, then we will also exclude plastic packaging for rice from being taxed, and we hope this will reduce their cost.”
He said this at a press conference after a SST briefing to more than 500 traders and representatives of business associations here, which was also attended by Customs director-general Datuk Seri T. Subromaniam.
Earlier, in a question-and-answer session, the issue of plastic packaging for rice was raised by traders, who claimed that they spent nearly RM1 million just to buy the plastic packaging.
Lim also announced that the government would exempt management and maintenance services charges from SST, and this applied for both strata and nonstrata properties.
He said before this, GST was only exempted for strata titled properties and measures were taken to encourage property owners to apply for strata titles.
“We must remember, it’s not that the owners do not want to apply for strata titles, but it could be due to constraints involving finance, financial institutions and other reasons.
“Thus, the government felt this (imposing SST on management and maintenance services of nonstrata titled properties) was not appropriate.”
Touching on the price of imported vehicles, following the implementation of SST, Lim said exemption would only be given to companies that assembled vehicles in the country using the input of local components.