GST: Expect a fine if not registered by Dec 31
Published on: Tuesday, September 23, 2014
KOTA KINABALU: Companies or businesses with a turnover of RM500,000 or more yearly are required to register for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) before Dec. 31 this year, or they could be fined, said Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong. He said businesses that are not registered by the time the GST is set up also cannot claim the input tax and this may cause their business operations to be affected.We hope they register before Dec 31 in order to also qualify for the Customs hand-holding programme, he said, adding this is important because businesses that have registered under GST need some time to evaluate and study on how GST will impact their businesses.He said this to reporters after a dialogue entitled Understanding GST for Sabah SMEs here on Monday. Chua said for Sabah he was briefed earlier that the GST registration Key Performance Index was 5,000 registrations.
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"But they managed to get 1,900 businesses so far who have registered for GST so they (Sabah case) are actually higher than the national average but of course we still want more businesses to register because I want to stress we are not here to fine businesses for not registering. "We need businesses to work together with us to implement GST successfully. "But in terms of the number that should be registering it is about 300,000 so we still have a shortfall and that is the reason we are doing all these seminars to increase the awareness of the importance of registering as soon as possible."So this it is important for us to continue working to increase it with an average of 2,000 to 2,500 on a daily basis. Currently the number of businesses registered under GST is 44,500 as of yesterday."
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Chua said based on the registrations, the Ministry expects by the end of the year to be 140,000 (businesses to be registered) for the whole of Malaysia. He said the dialogue was also intended to find out the level of preparedness of traders in the State and especially Kota Kinabalu and to provide them with more information about the implementation of GST. He added that many traders in the State are still unclear about the GST which would be implemented next year, especially on the grace period issue.
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He said for example during a question and answer session they found out many traders still assume they can still register their businesses after Dec 31, without any problem."If they register after that date they could end up being penalised by Customs. The GST grace period is only for those who have registered and have genuine error in their documents or computations and wrong software for example."They also asked if the implementation of GST would result in higher prices of goods due to a double taxation scenario where the tax would be higher than six per cent i.e. if there are three rounds of transactions whether the tax imposed would end up being 18 per cent. "There are input and output taxes whereby the output tax should be deducted with input taxes and the remainder amount paid to the government by the business. So the implementation of GST will prevent incidences of double taxation."I have also informed them that GST registration is free as I have heard that some third parties are claiming to represent the government and have tried to impose charges for helping businesses to register under GST."He said the government never appointed any party, individual or company as its representative to collect registration charges. Registration is free at any Customs office and we also have set up terminals for convenient GST registration, he added. "However some companies may utilise accounting firms (to register their businesses under GST). These companies may be charged but not by the government.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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