Malaysia will implement consumption tax in 2007

UPDATE: According to the Businesss Times, the Malaysian government will introduce the goods and services tax (GST) in January 2007.

In less than 18 months, Malaysia will join the long list of countries which have a similar consumption tax (also known as value-added tax, or VAT) such as the UK, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Canada, Singapore, China, Thailand, Australia and most recently, India.

If we look back to the long list of countries which implemented such value-added tax (VAT), we knew that Philippine people organization strongly opposed the implementation of the VAT. As Indonesia, many groups also protested about such regressive taxation.

This is the time for us to know more about the GST or VAT. Many of the ASA members in the region will be affected by this tax. Hopefully we can get more discussion and feedback from the people about this.