GOVT REVISES SST TARGET TO RM22B
Extra RM1 billion will be generated from sectors of new tax regime
THE government has revised its annual target for the Sales and Services Tax (SST) collection from RM21 billion to RM22 billion.
Customs Department directorgeneral Datuk Seri T. Subromaniam said the additional collection of RM1 billion would be generated from new sectors that were part of the new tax regime.
Although he did not specify them, the new sectors include gambling activities, airline and charter flight services (domestic helicopter services), except those in Sabah and Sarawak, apart from information technology services and domestic electric supply involving a monthly usage of more than 600 units.
Subromaniam said the department had registered 77,451 companies via automatic transfer system from MyGST to the MySST system.
He said these companies had been notified through email.
Of the total, 32,577 companies were derived from sales tax with the remaining 44,874 companies registered under the service tax.
“We believe that not all companies automatically registered are eligible to be registered under MySST because the data might be inaccurate.”
He said the department would only migrate the companies’ data from the MyGST system to MySST automatically.
“But we urge them to contact the Customs Department and iron out the matter,” he said.
He said eligible companies which had yet to register under MySST should manually do so before the implementation on Sept 1.
“We estimate about 10,000 eligible companies have yet to register under the MySST.”
Previously, the Customs Department expected between 70,000 and 80,000 local companies to register under SST.
Subromaniam said the number of registration under SST would be significantly lower compared with 472,000 companies registered under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) previously.
Subromaniam said it was vital for the Customs Department to educate companies on the SST tax mechanism.
“We will help companies to transit to SST so that we can efficiently implement this tax system,” he said.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the government would use a “soft approach” in dealing with traders and businesses implementing SST.
He urged businesses to declare their taxes honestly.
“We will place our trust in them first. Let them apply to the Customs Department first. If they are exempted, then it’s fine.
“However, if we investigate and find that they are not exempted, then they will have to pay the taxes. This is the soft approach we mean,” he said after meeting traders and businesses here yesterday.