Guan Eng wants big-ticket items to be taxed

KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng wants big-ticket items such as yachts and helicopters to be taxed under the sales and service tax (SST) regime.

He said the proposed list of items to be excluded from the SST, released by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department yesterday, is still subject to a public review.

“While the list issued by the Customs Department is only a proposal, the Finance Ministry believes it is necessary for big-ticket items to be taxed,” he said.

In the proposed list, big-ticket items such as aircraft, luxury ships, ferries, helicopters, spacecraft and snowboarding equipment are exempted from the SST.

The government is preparing to table the SST Bill in Parliament to replace the goods and services tax (GST). Lim, earlier this week, said that the SST would come into effect from Sept 1 onwards.

In the statement today, Lim conceded that the GST was “more transparent and efficient” compared with the SST, but this was only because the GST captures a wider taxpayer base.

This enables the GST to collect RM44bil for the government, as compared with RM21bil under the SST.

“The GST is more efficient and transparent when it is charged on 60% of the consumer price index goods basket compared to just 38% by the SST,” Lim said.

“With the replacement of the GST with the SST, the RM23bil which was collected from the GST would be returned to the people,” he said.