Royal Malaysian Customs, GST director Datuk Subromaniam Tholasy said through the revenue from GST, infrastructure, services, education and health, among others, could be further developed.
“The government will have available funds from the GST for more affordable home projects.
“The government can also afford to increase subsidies for the needy groups such as farmers, fishermen and breeders,” he told Bernama on Friday.
He said based on the economic projection for 2015, revenue from the GST would significantly surpass the RM20 billion income from the existing sales and service tax (SST).
“This is because traders will no longer be able to avoid paying tax to the government once the GST is implemented (on April 1, 2015),” he said.
Subromaniam said the government almost lost RM2.02 billion in revenue in the last three years since 2011 had it not been for the Inland Revenue Board which managed to track down more than 1,700 errant companies.
Meanwhile, Kolej Universiti Insaniah rector Profesor Datuk Mohd Yusof Kasim, who is also an economic analyst said the population might not feel the immediate effect of the GST as it is a long-term programme.
“The GST system has been adopted by 90 per cent of the countries in the world and proven to be successful and accepted by the people,” he said, citing as an example, New Zealand, which has a population of only around 4.5 million.
— BERNAMA
