By Adrian Lim
KUCHING, Nov 14: Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) has called on the Sarawak government to waive the imposition of State Sales Tax (SST) on imported tyres.
Its president Voon Lee Shan in a statement today said the state government has already collected a large sum of SST payment on petroleum products amounted to RM2.95 billion from national oil corporation Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) last September.
Since the state government has collected a large sum of SST from Petronas, he believed that there is no need for the state government to impose SST on imported tyres at the moment.
Voon opined that the imposition of SST on imported tyres will put more financial burden on traders and businesses which depended on imported tyres for their livelihood.
“The government should take heed of the advice of the Sarawak Tyres Dealers and Retreaders Association (STDARA) that businesses using tyres will incur higher operational cost and thus increase the prices of their goods and services accordingly.
“PBK receives comments from consumers especially the low-income group that they are struggling to make ends meet in the current economic scenario and they will suffer much with the imposition of SST because tyres will be very expensive.
“The Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government should be sympathetic and respond to the official request made by the association to waive the SST on February 12 this year,” he said in a statement.
Voon added PBK supports the call of STDARA’s appeal to the state government to defer the implementation of SST on imported tyres including those attached to imported vehicles into Sarawak.—DayakDaily
