KUALA LUMPUR: The Customs Department expects between 70,000 and 80,000 local companies to register under the impending Sales and Services Tax (SST).
Its director general Datuk Seri Subromaniam Tholasy said this would be significantly lower than the 472,000 companies registered under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) previously.
"The Customs Department will only migrate the eligible companies' data used to be under MyGST system to MySST system automatically beginning tomorrow.
"Companies will be informed via email so that they can check their data or information, which will be done within this week," he told reporters after attending the "SST Reborn! Transition from GST to SST" seminar here today.
Subromaniam said the migration work should be done to avoid interference once the SST was implemented on September 1.
"For companies which have yet to register, they can register to the SST system from next week," he added.
Subromaniam said it was vital for the Customs to have engagements session to educate companies on the SST mechanisms.
"We will help and guide companies in preparing their transition to SST to ensure that we can efficiently implement this tax system," he said.
Subromaniam said the department had so far engaged with over 14,000 people representing 5,000 companies.
He said the Customs' SST proposal would involve 6,400 items to be taxed, subject to Parliament's approval. Previously, there were 11,197 items taxed under GST.
"It's the government's goal not to tax as broad as GST. SST is a lot easier and should not be a problem for the government to implement it," he said, adding that the department was fully prepared to undertake this tax regime.
Subromaniam said the Customs prioritised on businesses first before it can be applied to the masses.
On the penalty for businesses who failed to comply with the new tax regime, Subromaniam said the charges would remain the same as GST's penalty compared to SST 1.0 regime.