GEORGE TOWN: The sales and service tax (SST) will incur additional burden to the poor and needy seeking traditional and complementary medicine (T&CM), says Alliance for a Safe Community chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.
Urging the government to reconsider the decision, Lee said he hoped the sector would be exempted from the tax.
“The imposition of SST will have a serious effect on the low income group.
“If the SST is to be imposed, it will incur additional burden and add on to the rising cost of living to patients, especially the elderly who need long-term treatments for their health problems.
“This is something that I feel is a reasonable and legitimate request. I hope the government will listen to the plight of practitioners as well as those undergoing T&CM treatments,” he said yesterday.
Lee suggested that T&CM practitioners who have been told to settle the outstanding SST, dating back to 2018, would also be exempted.
“This is time for the government to show it cares for the poor and lower income groups and certainly not time to impose the tax which will increase their hardship.”
Beginning March, T&CM facilities such as those providing traditional and natural alternative health treatments, with a minimum annual turnover of RM500,000, will have to pay an 8% SST.
