FMM sokong terap ciri terpilih GST dalam SST

Malaysia's Federal Manufacturing Institute (FMM) welcomes the government's openness to examining the application of selected features of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) into the Sales and Services Tax (SST) system. The FMM's President, Jacob Lee, believes this step offers a method of addressing overlapping tax issues without the need for a comprehensive reimplementation of GST in the near future.

Lee pointed out that overlapping tax, where sales tax is charged on a product at each stage of the supply chain, is a major drawback of the SST system. He stated that taxes paid on business inputs cannot be claimed again, which ultimately embeds the cost into production and distribution costs along the supply chain. Therefore, Lee mentioned, the government's proposal paves the way for practically incorporating a key GST feature into the SST, according to a statement.

Lee said the issue of overlapping tax is urgent in the context of the ongoing expansion of SST since April 2024, when service tax rates for most services were increased from 6% to 8%, while the rate for the logistics sector remained at 6%. Notably, exemptions, rate reductions, and transition outages provided by Putrajaya afterward have proven that wider fiscal costs necessitate further elaboration following the implementation.

Since July 2025, service tax has been extended to other areas including hiring, construction, and financial services.

Recently, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced that the government is open to examining a system that would combine elements of GST and SST to create a more progressive tax structure.