MIRI: Local small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have requested special briefings on details relating to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which will come into effect in April next year.
Wee (right) addressing the press, as Federation of Miri Division Chinese Associations president Hii Teck Yun looks on.
“Indeed, there are still many people who either do not understand or don’t fully understand the implementation of GST. As the deadline of the registration is approaching (Dec 31), it is a high time for us to organise more of such talks in major cities and adjacent townships in the country so that the big and small companies as well as the public could get hold of the necessary information relating to this,” Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong told a press conference after a dialogue with Chinese non-governmental organisations (NGOs) yesterday.
“Another problem faced by the local SMEs is that all the details were elaborated in Bahasa Melayu and English, causing the Chinese community to struggle in learning about it.”
Wee promised that there would be a solution after a discussion with the Finance Ministry and the special task force appointed to handle GST.
He also advised the Chinese community and local SMEs to send in official letters to appeal for the special seminars.
“Currently we are lacking in Chinese-speaking officers to brief on GST. As requests have been flooding in to us for this purpose, we are hoping to make it possible for all before the deadline,” he said.
He added that records showed only 12 per cent of the total 300,000 companies with an annual revenue of more than RM500,000 had registered for GST.
On whether GST could affect the next state election, which is due in 2016, Wee said the people should understand GST to avoid being manipulated by the opposition.
“First of all, they must understand why we need GST, how does it work and the lists of the items that are exempted from the GST.
“With the exemption lists, which are due to be announced, not all goods and services are subject to GST. More importantly, GST is set to replace the Sales and Services Tax (SST), which has cascading effects that have already burdened consumers with 16 per cent total taxes,” he explained.
Wee said classifying exempted items could help ease the people’s burden.
“For the last 30 years, the government couldn’t implement GST due to the fact that more than 40 per cent of the people fell under the low income group. Moreover, compared to other countries that have imposed GST on all items, we are happy that our people-friendly government has been trying to ease the people’s burden,” he added.