Posted on August 30, 2013, Friday
KUALA LUMPUR: The government will try its best to include the goods and services tax (GST) in the 2014 Budget, said Secretary-General of Ministry of Finance, Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah.
Mohd Irwan said the ultimate aim was to take care of the country and not to burden the people.
“There will be some rebates and zero-rated items for necessities such as rice and milk powder,” he said at the Economic Transformation Programme mid-year briefing here yesterday.
He said the GST would take 14 months to be implemented after it was announced.
“GST is a must, it is not an option,” he said.
Mohd Irwan said if the GST was implemented it would be a total package, as corporate and personal taxes would also be looked at.
On subsidy rationalisation, he said an annoucement would be made, the earliest by next week.
“It will be a gradual liberalisation and won’t impact the economy. The reforms will take into account the public at large,” he said.
He said the economy faced challenging times due to lower growth and sinking current account balance.
In this respect, he said, government spending on projects needed to be prioritised.
“We need to identify what are the projects with high import contents and low multiplier effect. However, private projects can go on,” he said.
Large infrastructure projects such as the mass rapid transit, he said, should carry on. — Bernama
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