Report less than RM1.5 million sales to escape paying SST

(MMO) – The Sales and Services Tax (SST) will not be imposed on 75 per cent of shops and restaurants after the threshold for the tax was raised to RM1.5 million yearly revenue from RM500,000 under the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Lim Guan Eng said today.

The finance minister pointed out that only 4,372 restaurants were registered under SST compared to 15,574 under GST.

“Isn’t the impact of SST far less than the GST since only 25 per cent of restaurants and coffee shops are affected by the SST compared to the GST?” Lim said in a statement.

Among the goods that are cheaper under the SST are certain marques of car, said Lim.

“SST will result in consumers enjoying lower prices for at least give brands of cars including Perodua, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and BMW when compared to the GST regime by between RM2,000 and RM3,000,” said Lim.

He also said that his ministry would discuss with the Real Estate Housing Developers Association (Rehda) of Malaysia if they could follow the decision of its Penang chapter to bring down the prices of houses above RM300,000 by 10 per cent and by 6 per cent for affordable houses priced below RM300,000.

The finance minister added that the Ministry of Finance will work closely with the Royal Customs Department to ensure that the Anti-Profiteering Act is enforced strictly.

Campaigns will be held to educate the consumers about lodging complaints if they discover that traders are hiking prices indiscriminately and taking advantage of the new tax regime.