Budget 2022: Tax treatment proposal to ensure fair taxation

KUALA LUMPUR – The tax treatment proposals were made to ensure that taxation is fair and that Malaysia remains business-friendly, and not just to increase the country’s revenue, said the Ministry of Finance’s head of Tax Division (International II), Ezleezan Othman.

As an example, he cited the proposed introduction of sales tax on low-priced goods from abroad which are sold by online traders and sent to consumers in Malaysia via air courier.

“We want to encourage manufacturing activities in the country, which is why we are taking the approach of imposing sales tax on these low-priced goods,” he said during RTM’s Budget Analysis 2022: Catalysing the Vision of Shared Prosperity 2030 programme tonight.

Ezleezan added that the proposed one-off ‘Cukai Makmur’ (Prosperity Tax) is also fair for all sectors.

“Essentially, the windfall tax only applies to goods, not to services or profits, so expanding the scope of the related tax law to apply it to companies’ profits or services is quite difficult because it requires legislative amendments and so on and will take a long time.

“This is why we want to introduce ‘Cukai Makmur’ which can be applied to product manufacturers and service providers, and we also have set a threshold value,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ezleezan said the government’s proposal to provide import duty, excise duty and sales tax exemptions for electric vehicles is expected to support the related local industry and benefit the people as well as the environment.

He also opined that the government’s target of creating 600,000 job opportunities in 2022 is achievable.

With the estimated gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 3.0-4.0% for 2021, Malaysia could create 400,000 new jobs, with a target of 500,000 new jobs by year-end, he said, adding that the country is aiming for GDP growth of 5.0-6.0% next year.