NEARLY one billion e-invoices have been issued nationwide, reflecting the broad adoption of the e-invoicing system among taxpayers, said Datuk Seri Amir Hamzah Azizan.
The Finance Minister II said that as of yesterday, about 981 million e-invoices has been generated under the system.
“To ensure compliance is fair and measured, the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) has adopted a nudging approach as an initial step to raise awareness and give taxpayers room to make corrections and submit the right tax information voluntarily,” he said during the winding up of the debate on the motion of thanks for the Royal Address in the Dewan Rakyat.
Based on data from Phases 1 and 2 of the e-invoicing system, he said 17,188 taxpayers were initially flagged as non-compliant in filing their income tax return forms (BNCP) but later came forward to file voluntarily.
The cases involved backdated income of RM1.4bil and resulted in an additional RM290mil in tax revenue, he added.
“This shows that early compliance measures and encouraging voluntary compliance are delivering positive results,” he said.
Amir Hamzah also stressed that the e-invoicing requirements were not tedious for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as most key details are captured automatically.
“Out of 55 data fields in an e-invoice, 35 are mandatory.
“But for SMEs, only five of the mandatory fields need to be filled in manually,” he said, adding that the additional information is automatically captured from business systems or at the point of sale.
He added that a QR code scanning feature was also introduced to allow traders to obtain buyer details quickly and easily, without the need to manually enter them.
On a separate matter, Amir Hamzah said Malaysia’s economy is gaining renewed momentum under the Madani administration, driven by fiscal reforms, stronger investor confidence and rising investment approvals.
He said three years of reforms had delivered tangible results for the economy and the people.
He added that fiscal consolidation, anchored by the Public Finance and Fiscal Responsibility Act, had reduced the fiscal deficit from 6.4% in 2021 to 5.5% in 2022, 5.0% in 2023 and 4.1% in 2024.
The fiscal deficit is expected to reach 3.8% for 2025 and is expected to fall further to 3.5% this year, he noted.
He also cited improvements to the sales and service tax (SST) and targeted subsidies involving electricity, diesel and RON95, which have saved the government RM15.5bil that could be redirected to cash assistance and public amenities.
Amir Hamzah stressed that the government’s ultimate goal was not only to “raise the economic ceiling” but also to “lift the floor of welfare” for Malaysians.
