KUALA LUMPUR: The government expects to collect a total of RM39 billion under the Goods and Services Tax next year Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak announced today.
Tabling the Budget 2016, Najib said the amount collected under the GST, implemented last April, will help to offset the losses caused by the fall in global oil prices, with petroleum revenue falling to RM44 billion, far short of its original target of RM62 billion for 2015.
Najib said the decision to implement the GST was the right one, given that the government would have only collected RM18 billion under the previous Sales and Services Tax (SST) system.
Without the GST, the national deficit would have climbed to 4.8 per cent and not 3.1 per cent as targeted for 2016, he said.
"Thankfully, the government had the political will to push on with GST, despite the criticisms against its implementation. This government will always make the right, rather than the most populist, decision," he said.