Finally, GST is dead, says Guan Eng

THE BILLS to repeal the goods and services tax (GST) and introduce sales and services tax (SST) were passed in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

The GST (Repeal) Bill 2018 and Services Tax Bill 2018 were passed via voice votes at the lower house yesterday while the Sales Tax Bill 2018 was passed on Tuesday night, as the government looks to replace GST with SST on Sept 1.

Wrapping up the debate on GST last night after the bill’s third and final reading, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng quipped: “Finally, GST is dead.”

Later, as the proceedings for the day was ending, an unidentified MP was heard saying jokingly over the microphone “AlFatihah to GST”, drawing laughter from the house.

All the bills will now be tabled and debated in the Dewan Negara.

Attention will now be drawn on the upper house as the Opposition, Barisan Nasional (BN), holds the majority in the Senate and will have the final say on whether the aboltion of GST and implementation of SST will be realised come September.

Pakatan Harapan (PH) had in its election manifesto promised to scrap GST, which it claimed was burdensome to the rakyat, and would reintroduce the single-tier tax regime SST.

GST has been zero-rated effective from June 1.

Under SST, sales of goods will incur a 10% tax whereas the provision of services will be taxed at 6%.

According to Lim, a total of 5,443 items will be exempted under SST, over 10 times more than the 540 items exempted under GST.

He said only 43.5% of all services will subjected to SST as opposed to the 64.8% under the current tax system.