Lim tables five improved tax collection, enforcement Bills
KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng yesterday tabled five amendment Bills, namely the Service Tax (Amendment) Bill 2019, Customs (Amendment) Bill 2019, Excise (Amendment) Bill 2019, Sales Tax (Amendment) Bill 2019, and the Free Zones (Amendment) Bill 2019 for first reading in Dewan Rakyat.
The Service Tax Bill will enable the government to impose service tax on digital and online services rendered by foreign providers to local consumers.
The tax shall be imposed and levied at a fixed rate based on the value imposed by the foreign providers, which should also be registered with the Royal Malaysian Customs Department.
Any foreign provider who violates Subsection 1 of the legislation may face a fine not exceeding RM50,000 or a maximum jail term of three years, or both, if convicted.
When tabling Budget 2019 on Nov 2 last year, Lim said that government would be imposing and collecting taxes on online services including software, music, video or any digital advertisements from Jan 1, 2020.
The decision was to ensure fair competition for local service providers, such as in architecture, graphic design, information technology and engineering design.
Meanwhile, the Customs Bill will see some improvement in Customs procedures, such as the payment of Customs duty, surcharge, penalty, fee or other payments; manifest submission; importer record-keeping obligations; transfers of goods by transit and transhipment; warehousing of imported goods; and vessel discharges.
The amendments are also aimed to create provisions for the licensing of petroleum supply bases, matters relating to the origin of goods, preferential and non- preferential tariff treatment services, and special provisions relating to Pangkor as a duty-free island.
In addition, the amendments also seek to strengthen the enforcement powers of customs officers and increase the penalty for offences under Act 235.
Under the Excise (Amendment) Bill, excise procedures, in particular, relating to the payment of excise duties, the obligation to keep records relating to excise and warehousing matters will be improved.
The proposed amendments, among others, aim to increase the enforcement of excise officers and to increase the penalty for offences under Act 176.
The amendments to the Sales Tax Act 2018, on the other hand, focuses on the provision of penalty for any person avoiding sales tax on imported taxable goods, while the proposed amendments to the Free Zones Act 1990, involves new provisions for penalty to prevent abuse and misappropriation of customs facilities and procedures in free zones. — Bernama