THE vehicle sales tax exemption which was put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic has helped bolster the automotive sector over the last two years. Is the government planning to halt the sales tax exemption?
Verdict:
TRUE
According to Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz, the vehicle tax exemption will end on June 30 as scheduled.
The government introduced the exemption for all passenger vehicles, including MPVs and SUVs, on June 15, 2020 and to date 868,422 vehicles have been sold amounting to RM4.7bil in exempted sales taxes.
Even though the sales tax was being scrapped, Zafrul said buyers who purchased their vehicles prior to June 30 this year had until March 31, 2023, to register the vehicles with the Road Transport Department.
He said this is because 264,000 units of vehicles booked during the sales tax exemption period have not yet completed installation and cannot be supplied to the buyer, owing to a worldwide microchip shortage.
"The extension of this vehicle registration period is a mid-point solution to balance the interests of consumers and national tax revenue which needs to be re-enhanced post-pandemic to ensure the welfare of the people and the economic well-being of the country continues to be preserved," said Tengku Zafrul in a statement on Monday (June 20).
Tengku Zafrul added that the whole world was facing a shortage of semiconductor microchips, which were widely used across several industries, including the automotive industry.
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