RM690 million in net revenue from GST expected

KUALA LUMPUR: Citi Research, a division of Citigroup Global Markets Inc, expects RM690 million in net revenue from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in 2015.

It said the forecast was based on GST gross revenue of RM23.3 billion, revenue losses from the sales and services tax (SST) abolishment (RM13.8 billion), revenue losses from the expanded list of exempted goods (RM3.8 billion), and expanded assistance programmes (RM4.9 billion).

“Including last week’s fuel price hike, 2015 inflation is expected to jump to 4.0-5.0 per cent in 2015, with private consumption expected to slow to just 5.6 per cent.

“This should be cushioned by faster public investment and consumption, such that domestic demand is projected to slow only marginally to 6.2 per cent from 6.5 per cent in 2014,” it said in a research note today.

The research firm said private investments into 2016 may be further helped by a 1.0 per cent cut in corporate tax and small and medium enterprise tax rates to 24 and 19 per cent, respectively. –Bernama