KUALA LUMPUR: A total of RM1.689bil in Goods and Services Tax (GST) was collected on imported goods as of May 10, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan (pic).
He said this amount was recorded from the day GST started on April 1.
“Such data is known earlier (than tax collected from businesses) because the GST payments are made before the imported goods are released from Customs control at airports, ports and the country’s borders,” he told the Dewan Rakyat during question time.
Ahmad was answering a question from Dr Lee Boon Chye (PKR – Gopeng) who asked to state the amount of income from the implementation of GST so far.
Ahmad said the Government estimated that RM23.2bil in GST would be collected within nine months of April 1.
“However, this estimated sum excludes deductions to be made from items which have recently been made zero-rated after the Budget 2015 announcement like RON95 petrol and medicine,” he said.
He said the Government was still unable to announce the latest GST collection from businesses because companies with an annual turnover of RM5mil and above only needed to file their tax returns by the end of the following month.
“For example, tax returns for the month of April can be filed anytime between May 1 and 31. The Customs will only know the total collection for April in June,” Ahmad said.
Companies earning less than RM5mil, on the other hand, needed to submit their tax returns once in three months.
To a supplementary question from Dr Lee, Ahmad said the Government will continue to ask product manufacturers to announce lower prices of items now that the 10% sales and services tax is replaced with the 6% GST.
“We have asked manufacturers and factories of 295 types of products to announce lower prices, similar to how six car makers had done before,” he said.
It was reported that car makers like Proton, Honda Malaysia and UMW Toyota Motor had announced lower car prices after the GST was imposed on April 1.
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