2020 State Budget
KUCHING: Sarawak plans to introduce a State Sales Tax (SST) of one per cent on aluminium products that are exported out of the state, starting from January next year.
Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg said this is part of the state’s concerted efforts to expand its revenue stream through re-engineering of its revenue base.
“(This is also) to enable the state to maintain its development momentum and keep up with accelerated pace of development especially in the rural areas which require a substantial amount of funding,” he said when tabling the Supply (2020) Bill at the Sarawak Legislative Assembly sitting here today.
Abang Johari, who is also the state Finance and Economic Planning Minister, said the expected tax revenue from aluminium products is RM58 million of the total estimated tax revenue of RM4.631 billion or 46 per cent of the total estimated state revenue in 2020.
He said in the first seven months of this year, exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) had increased by 1.4 million tonnes compared with the corresponding period in 2018, and exports of aluminium and ferro alloys had also recorded an increase.
As part of the state’s efforts to expand its revenue stream, he said the government also plans to revise the tariff for the abstraction of raw water from one sen per cubic metre to 2.5 sen per cubic metre, effective January next year.
“The increase in the tariff rate will only affect the power and water supply providers. I would like to highlight here that the electricity and water charges to the consumers from both industry and residential will remain unchanged,” he added. – Bernama
