No country has reversed its implementation of the GST, even with a change of government, Finance Minister II Johari Abdul Ghani said today.

He stated this in response to former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s argument that Malaysia did not require GST during his tenure to become an “Asian Tiger.”

Mahathir, who now helms Pakatan Harapan, has vowed to abolish the GST should the opposition coalition take Putrajaya in the upcoming 14th general election.

Johari defended the GST as “the most efficient tax system in the world” for growing a country’s capital, being implemented in more than 160 countries and with none backpedalling on it.

“Even after how some of them have changed governments, the new government has never reversed the system.

"Because the system is efficient,” he told members of the press after launching the Finance Ministry’s annual “Open Day” event its Putrajaya headquarters.

No more 'shadow economy'

Johari added that the GST was especially efficient in eliminating the “shadow economy,” by requiring companies to register and become tax-compliant.

“More and more companies are registered today. In the past, they had been operating in Malaysia but they were not tax-compliant companies,” he said.

Malaysia implemented GST on April 1, 2015, after global oil prices nosedived.

Within a year of its implementation, Putrajaya collected RM41.2 billion in tax revenue. A target of RM45 billion has been set for this year.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has repeatedly claimed that the country would be in serious deficit without the tax.

The opposition has made the abolishment of GST one of its main campaign promises for GE14, vowing do so within 100 days of it forming the government.