Abolishment of GST affected country’s revenue – Abd Rahim

(Bernama) – The previous government’s decision to abolish the Goods and Services Tax (GST) has to some extent affected the country’s revenue, said Deputy Finance Minister I Datuk Abd Rahim Bakri.

He said this was because the country faced a revenue shortfall when GST was abolished and replaced with the Sales and Service Tax (SST).

“GST was introduced in 2015 before the then government decided to abolish the tax system in 2018.

“Judging from the data, GST collection was RM44 billion a year and the total during its implementation was RM133.1 billion while SST collection was just RM21 billion annually,” he said when winding up the debate on the Sales Tax (Amendment) Bill 2020 in Dewan Negara here today.

He said the GST collection was higher as the taxation system was more comprehensive and charged on all taxable goods and services at all stages, compared to SST, which was deemed a single-stage tax and imposed only on manufacturers.

“About 597,000 people registered under GST while only 46,519 registered under SST… and some 12,000 types of products were taxable under GST but only 6,000 items under SST,” he said.

Nevertheless, Abd Rahim admitted that there was a weakness in the implementation of GST, which has indirectly affected the people.

He said the government would consider the views and acceptance of all parties including the people on the possible reintroduction of GST.