Tax Thoughts: GST vs SST, Global Minimum Tax, Budget 2024 and e-Invoicing

We’re now around 3 weeks away from the Budget 2024 being tabled in Parliament and tax reform is always something that comes up during this time and when we talk about tax reform, there’s really no escaping the topic of whether the Goods and Service tax will make a comeback.

While there’s been a lot of chatter around the reimplementation of GST, Prime Minister and Finance Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has made note that other things must be done first before bringing it back, like subsidy rationalisation. On a similar note, Deputy Finance Minister Steven Sim recently also noted that the timing isn’t right for GST to make a comeback.

So while the government doesn’t seem keen on it right now, Anwar did say to Bloomberg that GST is the most efficient and transparent tax system, so it might be only a matter of time before it comes back given that over 170 countries have introduced a consumption tax. So today, we speak to Thenesh Kannaa, Executive Director at Tratax, about the likelihood of GST coming back and how best to prepare for it, the difference between GST and the Sales and Service Tax (SST) that replaced it, and more pressing tax issues that business should keep in mind as we head into the next budget and the last quarter of the year.