KOTA KINABALU: The Royal Malaysia Customs (Sabah) believes more companies will register for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which will be implemented on April 1.
State Customs director Datuk Janathan Kandok said as of December 31 last year, the department had received close to 16,000 registrations from companies and businesses.
“We believe we are on the right track in terms of our Key Performance Index (KPI) in GST that was set up by the government.
“Previously, we were allocated to register about 5,000 companies for GST before it was raised to 12,000 companies.
“However, by the end of December last year, we recorded about 16,394 companies who had registered for the GST, which is about 137 per cent of what was initially expected,” he said at a press conference at the State Customs headquarters here yesterday.
According to Janathan, the achievement was mainly due to the awareness of the public, particularly from companies, of the importance of GST in the development of the country’s economy.
For companies or businesses that have not registered for GST yet, Janathan urged them not to prolong as action could be taken against them.
“Starting January 1, a compound of RM1 per day will be imposed on companies who failed to register for GST, while the maximum penalty is up to RM15,000 under Section 96 of the GST Act 2014,” he said.
For the record, Janathan said no companies had been slapped with the maximum penalty, and urged relevant companies not to postpone their registration.
Registration can be made through www.gst.customs.gov.my or the nearest MyGST kiosk.