The sales and services tax (SST) is considered less painful to the consumers. Datuk Tan Sim Kiat, adviser of indirect tax at KPMG Tax Services Sdn Bhd, said the SST is a simple, easy and straightforward taxation concept with a single-stage tax applicable to the manufacturers that will put a lighter burden on consumers. However, goods and services tax (GST) involves multiple stages ranging from the manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and consumers.

“So, with that (SST) in place, the rakyat will have more spending power because there would not be any SST at the retail stage, the tax is only at the manufacturer level. Hence, the impact on the consumers is normally so much less with this single-stage tax,” Tan told a media briefing after a KPMG event entitled “Tax Talk: GST at 0% — Have you got it right?” yesterday.

When asked whether there will be higher prices for goods due to the implementation of SST, KPMG’s executive director for indirect tax Ng Sue Lynn said Price Control and Anti-Profiteering (Mechanism to Determine Unreasonably High Profit) — Regulations 2018 (PCAP Regulations 2018) will come into place to ensure that there will not be price increases when SST is implemented.

“They (government) recently introduced the PCAP Regulations 2018 with the intention to make sure that when SST comes back, the prices will not increase drastically. The price control mechanism is also to make sure that the retailers would not mark up unreasonable high profit,” she said.

To read full article, click here.