Political Secretary to Premier, Kho Teck Wan calls on SST for medical services to be excluded

suppadmin | December 31, 2023

SST will not be impose on essential services on March 1 ,2024 but included Chinese Medicine services and chiropractic, said SUPP Central Woman Chief, Kho Teck Wan.

Kho said most were shocked to learn that the Chinese Medicine Services operators were told to pay “backdated” SST from year 2018 to 2023 by May 2024.

“These operators were not formally informed about the implementation of SST on their services and physiotherapy should be listed as essential services. And these services should be free from the SST charge. With such short notice and no formal letter or public announcement from the government, these operators were caught by surprise of the “backdated” tax they need to pay and stressed over the potential penalty that maybe imposed on them should they failed to pay the taxes, ” she said.

Contrary to the GST implementation where formal announcement were made known to public and business operators way ahead of time, and ample time and trainings were given to the business operators to prepare for the implementation, Kho added that she was made to understand that the physiotherapists and chiropractors were only informed of the need to start collecting SST by January 1st 2024 about a month ago. Chinese medicines had played an important role in helping the overstretched and stressed public healthcare system during the COVID19 pandemic. For many, Chinese medicines and services are essential in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

She added that those who suffered injuries or physical impairment due to many circumstances depend on physiotherapy and chiropractic in making a full recovery as our country aging group is increasing. These services are not an option but necessity for the patients to return to a normal and productive life. These medical services are important in reducing and preventing the increase of medical spending to both the patients and our nation.

The tax reform proposed by Prime Minister, Dato Sri Anwar Ibrahim broaden the tax base to a new capital gains tax (CGT), a new luxury goods tax, an expansion on the scope of the sales and service tax (SST), a two percentage increase in the SST rate from 6 to 8%, an expansion of the application of stamp duty, and the introduction of a global minimum tax (GMT).

It was stated that the raise of SST rate from 6% to 8% will not include services such as food, beverages and telecommunications. The scope of taxable services will expand to include logistic services, brokerage, underwriting and karaoke.

Kho urged the Federal government to reconsider the enforcement of “backdated” SST and implementation of SST on these medical services and to publish a full list of services that are subjected to SST, with their effective implementation dates.