PUTRAJAYA: The Finance Ministry is of the opinion that big-ticket items like aeroplanes and luxury ships should be taxable under the Sales and Service Tax (SST).
Its minister Lim Guan Eng said the list of SST exempted items including big-ticket items uploaded on the Customs Department's website were still at the proposal stage.
“It is still at the level of getting feedback from the public on whether to include or exclude these items from the list.
“The ministry is of the opinion that luxury items or the big-ticket items should be subject to tax under the SST,” he said in a statement today.
The big-ticket items in the SST exempted list include aeroplanes, luxury ships, passenger ferries, helicopters and spacecraft.
As a government that upheld truth based on facts and figures, Lim said he was prepared to say the Goods and Services Tax (GST) was perhaps more transparent and efficient than SST.
“This is because the GST has been successfully imposed on many taxpayers including the common people which has resulted in tax collection of RM44 billion compared to RM21 billion collected under SST.
“The excess collection of RM23 billion from GST has burdened the rakyat until it has affected their cost of living,” he said.
Lim said the GST became more efficient and transparent when it covered 60 per cent of the Consumer Price Index basket of goods compared with only 38 per cent from SST.
He reiterated that the extra RM23 billion collected from GST would be given back to the people.
On Thursday, Lim was reported saying at Parliament that the government hoped the RM23 billion returned to the people would spur domestic consumption as well as reassure investors’ confidence.