Companies under these categories with income of RM500,000 and more are required to register by Feb 28

By SHAHEERA AZNAM SHAH / Pic By TMR

Four new segments have been added into the Sales and Services Tax (SST) list, including securities brokerage and underwriting as the authority widens the levy net, but insists the new categories have little impact on low-income earners.

Other businesses added to the sales tax that replaced the Goods and Services Tax (GST) are amusement park operations, cleaning services and training providers.

Royal Malaysian Customs Department DG Datuk Seri Subromaniam Tholasy (picture) said these businesses are from the services sector, which has benefitted from the flourishing economy.

“These four sectors have been included in SST because they are not burdening the lower-income households, particularly the bottom 40% (B40) group.

“If we look at these services, they are for industrial use and not for household purposes.

“And we do not expect the new items to affect the Consumer Price Index of the lower- income group and that the collection from these services will help to strengthen the country’s economy,” he said in Petaling Jaya yesterday.

He said the four new services were taxed under the old GST regime.

The Customs added the four new services at the end of last year and the taxes are effective on March 1.

Companies under these categories with income of RM500,000 and more are required to register before Feb 28, 2019.

“They have exactly one month to register from February and we are expecting not fewer than 10,000 companies to come and make their businesses imposed to the tax,” he said.

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng recently said the government collected RM5.4 billion from the sales tax, about 34% higher than the RM4 billion target set when it was implemented in early September last year.

On the SST annual collection, Subromaniam said the government is projecting the amount to surpass the previous target of RM22 billion.

“The SST target that was given to the Customs is about RM22 billion, but we will likely surpass the figure based on our performances of the last quarter of 2018.

“We expect to generate more than RM22 billion, while the remaining of the total indirect tax collection would derive from the excise and import duty, among others,” he said.

Meanwhile, Subromaniam said the Customs is preparing guidelines for the sugar tax, which was announced in Budget 2019 last year.

“We are preparing the guidelines which will be rolled out very soon. The tax imposed on sugar-sweetened beverages will come under the excise duty, which will be at 40 sen per litre,” he said.

The government announced during the presentation of Budget 2019 the introduction of an excise duty of 40 sen per litre on beverages that contain sugar exceeding 5g per 100ml, as well as fruit and vegetable juices containing sugar more than 12g per 100ml, starting April 1.