MALAYSIAN GOVT KEEN TO IMPLEMENT GST BUT NO TIMEFRAME

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 18 (Bernama) -- The government is keen to implement the goods
and services tax (GST) but has not fixed a timeframe for it, Second Finance
Minister Ahmad Husni Mohamad Hanadzlah said Tuesday.

He said the government was studying the GST as an effort to further increase
future revenue.

"We believe that if we introduce GST, which will take over from the sales
and service tax regime, more revenue can be generated but it will not cause much
pain to the public," he told reporters after chairing the focus group meeting on
Budget 2010 here.

According to Ahmad Husni, the government also needs to study the social
impact arising from implementing the GST.

"This is what we are doing, studying the social impact if we were to
introduce the GST," he said.

Asked whether the government will announce the GST implementation in Budget
2010, Ahmad Husni said: "We don't have the timeframe when to implement that."

"If we want to introduce the GST, it should mean the Consumer Price Index
would not be affected," he said, adding that the government did not want to
cause hardship for the people.

The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER) on Monday urged the
government to look into tax reforms and introduce them in Budget 2010.

Its executive director Professor Emeritus Mohammed Ariff Abdul Kareem
said the government needed to introduce the GST or Value-Added Tax (VAT) as soon
as possible as tax collection this year is expected to fall short of the
government's target.

On the implementation of subsidies, Ahmad Husni said the government was
looking into the possibility of giving out more subsidies to vulnerable groups.

"If you earn less, you will get the subsidy but the more you earn, the less
you will get. This is the system that we are looking at," he said.
-- BERNAMA