Impose GST only on big industry players, urged Mawar

The Malaysian Muslim Wholesalers and Retailers Association (Mawar) has asked the government to exempt small timers from the Goods and Service Tax (GST) and impose it only on importers, manufacturers and distributors.

"It's good enough to collect it from the big industry players, instead of burdening petty traders and sundry shop owners, who will be bogged down by the software, having to collect it (GST), count it, tabulate it and send it to the government," Mawar adviser Razeer Ahmed said.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 12th GST Seminar organised by the Secretariat for Empowerment of Indian Entrepreneurs (SEED) in collaboration with the Royal Malaysian Customs Department and Mawar here Monday.

On reasons for low GST registration among Indian companies, SEED manager T. Nanthakumar said most Indian companies had turnovers less that the compulsory registration threshold of RM500,000.

He said 91 per cent of them were micro-businesses while nine per cent were small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with a threshold of more than RM300,000.

"They (micro-businesses) are still small. Maybe, in future the number of the SMEs will increase," he said.

It is mandatory for businesses with taxable turnovers exceeding RM500,000 to register for the GST while those with turnovers below the threshold could apply for voluntary registration by Dec 31.

Malaysia is set to implement new consumption tax at six per cent at all level of businesses on April 1, 2015.

Until yesterday, the total number of companies registered for the GST stood at 265,162, surpassing the government's year-end target of 140,000.