Over RM400 million collected in digital services tax

The government has collected RM428.07 million from digital service providers since the enforcement of the digital services tax early this year, Deputy Finance Minister I Abd Rahim Bakri says.

He said the tax was imposed on Netflix, Amazon, advertisements on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as applications and games on smartphones, among others.

“This is a new source of revenue for the country and will be enhanced in the future. This collection is not only imposed on local digital service providers, we have also started efforts to impose the tax on foreign digital service providers,” he said when winding up the debate on the Service Tax (Amendment) Bill 2020 at the Dewan Negara today.

The issue on the digital services tax was raised by Senator N Balasubramaniam.

On goods and services tax (GST) refunds, Rahim said most of the claims had been reimbursed, with about RM1.87 billion not yet paid as there were some matters that need to be resolved.

Apart from that, he said, the Royal Malaysian Customs Department carries out regular field audits in an effort to ensure that taxpayers pay the proper amount of taxes and to avoid leakage.

This also ensures that the government can collect the actual tax amount, he added.