KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 — A holistic study will be conducted on the abolished goods and services tax (GST) to see if it should be revived, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.
The prime minister added that if the GST was brought back, the government will make sure that no one group will “escape” from being taxed.
“The GST, when it was implemented, it was not done following an organised tax system.
“Many people escaped from paying the tax,” he told a press conference after launching the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre here.
He said his Pakatan Harapan (PH) government will “tidy up” the current tax system before it decides the necessity in bringing back the controversial 6 per cent tax, which is said to be more efficient in adding revenue but which was seen as a heavy public burden on the masses.
The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research recently proposed the return of the consumption tax but at a lower rate of 3 per cent, claiming the GST to be more efficient in keeping the government afloat than the sales and services tax (SST) that was implemented in September 2018.
The GST was introduced in April 2015 by the Barisan Nasional government under Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
Rolling back the GST had been one of PH’s electoral promises, which swept the coalition to victory last year.
The PH had claimed the SST would be less burdensome on consumers as goods are taxed at a 5 per cent while services are taxed 10 per cent.
In comparison, the GST collected a flat 6 per cent tax on all goods and services, which earned the government plenty of revenue but was criticised for the lack of transparency in its accounting.
