KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 – The large number of registrants under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) including voluntary registrants is a positive indication that businesses are becoming more tax-compliant as they begin to realise the benefits of registering under the GST system.
The report was issued in conjunction with the tabling of the 2016 Budget today by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, who is also Finance Minister. The Finance Ministry in an article published in the 2015/2016 Economic Report released today that there were a total of 390,378 business entities had registered under the GST as of September this year compared with 300,811 registrants during the mandatory period which ended on Dec 31, 2014.
Under the GST assistance packages, it said the government had provided tax and non-tax assistance packages for businesses and consumers including a grant of RM1,000 for the purchase of GST-compliant accounting software and a one-off cash assistance of RM300 to 1Malaysia People’s Aid (BR1M) recipients.
The ministry said based on the large number of registrants, it would indirectly enhance the potential revenue to be generated as some of these businesses were not captured within the previous tax system. The GST, implemented on April 1, 2015 to replace the Sales Tax and Services Tax (SST), simplified the previous tax system which has multiple rates and different thresholds to a single rate at six per cent and single threshold at RM500,000 for businesses.
