The High Court in Kuala Lumpur today allowed an application by Asia Kitchen Industries Sdn Bhd to add the federal government as a defendant in a suit against the Royal Customs Department and the Finance Ministry to seek exemption from goods and services tax (GST) for dried dates, among others.

"The matter has been fixed for case management on Sept 20 for the government to file an application to strike out the suit," said company's lawyer Abu Backer Sidek after High Court deputy registrar K Pavani allowed the application.

He said the government and the Finance Ministry through its minister have given an undertaking that they would look into the issue.

Federal counsel Farah Ezlin Yusop Khan appeared for the customs department while senior federal counsel Maisarah Jauhari represented the government and the ministry.

Asia Kitchen Industries filed the suit in June seeking an order that the list of fruits and vegetables in the GST schedule be amended, as dried dates should be exempted from GST.

The matter came up for case management last month but the representatives from the department and the ministry did not enter an appearance. As a result, the case was fixed for today.

In the statement of claim, the company stated the implications of GST on traders and consumers in the country.

Before the GST was implemented, it said the defendants published a list of items that would be exempted from the GST so that the new tax would not affect the people much.

The defendants, the company claimed, promised that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) would in fact see a reduction by 0.1 percent, including for goods and services, restaurants and hotels, communications, transport, decorative items, maintenance and equipment, housing, water, electricity and gas; clothes and shoes, along with alcohol and tobacco, and that basic items would not be charged GST.

However, it added that the government broke its promise when it charged GST on those items.

As a result, the CPI as shown by the Statistics Department, had risen by 3.5 percent in January this year, following the implementation of GST on April 1 last year.

The company added that items like housing, water, electricity, gas, transport and other goods and services, which were earlier promised would see a reduction in prices, had in fact seen an increase.

As the company is involved in the process of importing and distributing dried dates from Saudi Arabia, it is severely affected as it is also charged the six percent GST.

Asia Kitchen Industries further stated that there is no difference between dried and fresh dates as the process does not increase its value. Dried dates do not go through the conventional drying process but a natural process where it is harvested when ripe and dried before it is cultivated and processed for sales.