The government will introduce a bill to bring in a goods and services tax in the current sitting of parliament that ends on Dec 15, the prime minister said.

The tax, aimed at reducing the government's dependence on revenues from state oil giant Petronas, has been under consideration for years but has been shelved due to political pressure. There was no firm date for its introduction.

NONE "This will allow the public to give their comments, engage them, and if we find it necessary to fine tune it, we'll do so," Prime Minister Najib Razak said during a visit to New York, according to state news agency Bernama .

The first reading of the bill does not specify when it would become law and Najib, who is rebuilding political support for the government that has ruled this Southeast Asian country for 52 years pledged that it would be introduced "very gently".

The BN government sank to its worst results in national and state elections in 2008 and Najib took office in April pledging to liberalise the economy.

The country’s budget deficit will hit a more than 20-year high of 7.4 percent of gross domestic product this year and Najib has said he will tackle fuel subsidies so as to bring down the deficit to 5.6 percent of GDP in 2010.

Petronas accounts for more than 40 percent of government revenue and the taxpayer base in this country of 28 million people is just 2.3 million individuals and companies.

- Reuters