Malaysia GST Bill 2014 passed, finally.

The Malaysian Parliament passed the GST 2014 bill yesterday April 7, 2014 with 119 MPs voted in favour of the law, while 81 MPs were against it.

The contentious GST 2014 was passed after two bloc division votes were taken among the MPs.  The bill was passed for 2nd reading to 3rd reading in 2 days, with no debate held for the 3rd reading.

The Deputy Finance Minister said that the Government had done a survey on 689 consumer items to study the effects of GST on their pricing. 




Out of the 689 items surveyed, the results show that 

• no price changes : 329  (48%)
• cheaper : 287  (42%)
• more expensive : 73 (10%)

In addition, the proposed GST exemption for electricity usage is the first 300KW, up from 200KW previously announced.

The Government also expects a one-off 1.8% increase in inflation rate following the GST implementation but prices were expected to stabilise after that.  The Government will not hesitate to use the Anti-Profiteering Act and put people behind bar for those who unreasonably raise prices of goods.
 
The work has begun. 

If you are a business owner, 

1. assess whether your staff fully understands what they have to do in a GST environment 
2. assess the impact of GST on your cashflow
3. assess whether your accounting software is able to produce GST compliance reports
4. attend GST seminars

If you are a consumer (which is you and me, and everybody )

1. assess the impact of GST on your purchase decision of big-ticket item

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