‘LEEWAY IN REGISTERING FOR SST’
But traders must have valid reason, says finance minister
TRADERS who do not register their businesses for the Sales and Services Tax (SST) before Sept 1 will not face any action by the government if they have a valid reason.
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said the ministry would give traders a bit of leeway, but they were warned not to misuse it.
“Do not try to take advantage of the leeway to avoid registering your business under SST. Those who are required to register must register.
“We want to use a softer and wiser approach and treat traders as partners.
“We want to encourage them to pay the tax so that the country will continue to develop in a healthy manner.”
He said the ministry had not fixed any deadline for traders to register, but SST would be imposed on them once it came into effect on Sept 1.
“If you are caught under the SST for five per cent and you register on Oct 1, you still have to pay the tax from Sept 1. It is your loss if you register late.
“It does not benefit you if you do not register.”
Customs Department director-general Datuk Seri T. Subromaniam said the complete list of items and businesses affected by SST would be ready in two days.
He said the public should not expect any significant changes to the list.
It was reported that SST would affect 70,000 businesses, as opposed to 420,000 under the now-repealed Goods and Services Tax (GST).
SST will see its rate set at 10 per cent for sales and 6 per cent for services.
Subromaniam said the list of exempted items might “more or less” remain the same.
He had said that SST would involve only 6,400 items (in terms of goods tax) compared with 11,197 items under GST.
“There are a lot of items exempted under SST compared with GST.”
He said companies that had yet to register their businesses under the SST system would have five more days to do so.
He said about 5,000 companies had yet to register for SST, while 79,618 had done so.
“We will migrate the (companies’) data used under the GST system to SST,” Subromaniam said after launching Op erasi Bimbing SST.
Operasi Bimbing SST, which will end on Sept 7, will see some 3,000 Customs officers visiting SSTregistered companies nationwide to observe and guide the implementation of SST.
“The officers will visit 79,618 premises registered under the legislation.
“The department has uploaded 30 industrial guidelines for the benefit of traders at mysst.customs.gov.my.
“This is a friendly approach, as instructed by the minister (Lim). We want to focus on this approach and see through its implementation.”
He said punitive measures might be taken after the completion of Operasi Bimbing SST.
“That one will be in Phase 2. But I do not want to elaborate on that.”