SST briefing sessions attract over 13,000 participants

PUTRAJAYA: The Ministry of Finance, with the cooperation of the Royal Malaysian Customs Department has organised 16 briefing- cum- question and answer sessions on the Sales and Services Tax ( SST) nationwide to- date.

In a statement yesterday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the SST briefing sessions had attracted more than 13,000 participants from various domestic industry sectors.

“The effort has borne fruit whereby interested parties from the trade and industry sectors gave feedback and appealed for SST exemption or a lower sales tax rate for various goods,” he added.

As a result of the feedback and appeals, he said, the ministry and the Customs Department decided to exempt several goods from the SST as well as review sales tax rates on selected goods.

“The government hopes the modifications will enhance the people’s well-being in line with the aspiration of the Pakatan Harapan government,” he added.

Lim said the government had so far given SST exemptions for mobile prepaid services provided to Malaysians, peanuts, imported completely knocked down components for locally- assembled vehicles, salted, dried and preserved fish, and seafood under the crustacean and mollusc HS ( Harmonised System) code.

Also exempted are pewter items, plastic bags used to pack rice, cigarettes and tobacco products for restaurant sale, rental of small stalls on restaurant compounds, as well as ships, ferries and boats.

Lim said the government had also lowered the sales tax rate from 10 per cent to five per cent for cosmetic products, beauty and skincare products, mobile phone accessories, watches, retreaded tyres, new tyres and inner tubes for motorcycles.

At the same time, additional leniency was given by excluding revenue from cigarette sales, tissue paper and small stall rental from the calculation of restaurant and coffee shop SST threshold value. — Bernama