FINANCE Minister Lim Guan Eng said that the threshold set for eateries liable for SST (Sales and Services Tax) which is RM1.5 million, is higher than the GST (Goods and Service Tax) which was imposed by the former federal government.
“The former (federal) government set a threshold of RM500,000 for GST where they collected some RM1.2 billion.
“We (the new federal government) have now increased the threshold under the SST to RM1.5 million which comes to around RM711 million in collection.
“This causes the government a loss of RM500 million, but we are willing to collect lesser taxes to ensure the economic well-being of our people are guaranteed,” said Lim at a press conference today.
Lim was responding to the murmuring of the former finance minister cum prime minister regarding the SST, saying that it is sheer economic hypocrisy on the latter’s part.
“The former Finance Minister is murmuring on the SST which we have imposed.
“He did not make any noise when he had to pay 6% of GST but now he is complaining on the SST which is also 6%.
“Do not practise economic hypocrisy and deception,” noted Lim.
According to Lim, under the SST with a threshold of RM1.5 million, only 4,372 coffee shops and restaurants are liable to pay the SST.
This is in contrast with the GST where 17,574 coffee shops and restaurants are charged with GST.
“Only those which earn more than RM1.5 million need to pay the SST.
“This is to help those coffee shops and restaurants who do not earn much.
“So, this is the difference between and the SST and GST,” said Lim
Apart from that, the finance minister also stated that car prices have gone down under the SST.
“Perodua, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and BMW are some of the car dealers where there is a decrease in the car prices,” added Lim
Story by Tanushalini Moroter
Pix by Revatic Govindaraju
Video by Adleena Rahayu Ahmad Radzi