No plan for new tax on e-commerce - minister
The Communications and Multimedia Ministry has no plan to propose any new tax on e-commerce activities, the Dewan Negara was told today.
Instead, Minister Annuar Musa said the ministry wanted to encourage more people to participate in such activities.
“Taxation policy is under the jurisdiction...
The Communications and Multimedia Ministry has no plan to propose any new tax on e-commerce activities, the Dewan Negara was told today.
Instead, Minister Annuar Musa said the ministry wanted to encourage more people to participate in such activities.
“Taxation policy is under the jurisdiction of the Finance Ministry and usually, any tax-related policy will be announced at the annual budget session.
“Nevertheless, the ministry has no plan so far to introduce any form of new tax as we want to encourage participation in e-commerce,” he said during the oral question and answer session.
He was responding to a supplementary question from Senator N Balasubramaniam who wanted to know if the government has any plan to impose a tax on those who conduct online business.
Meanwhile, on efforts to encourage youth participation in the digital economy, Annuar said the government’s focus was to ensure the country’s broadband connectivity could reach 100 percent, apart from maintaining its quality.
“A lot of places have broadband facilities but at low quality, so the government is focusing on the rollout of the Jendela (National Digital Network) programmes to ensure 98 percent of populated areas receive 4G coverage and can migrate from 3G.
“Also, there is the Point of Presence (PoP) method involving fiberisation programme for 4,000 selected schools with an unstable internet connection,” he said.
According to Annuar, there were other programmes carried out to expand these efforts to rural areas, including an e-commerce campaign for small, medium, and micro enterprises which reportedly benefited 204,262 participants.
In addition, he said the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (Mdec) was tasked to promote financial technology payment systems (FinTech), e-commerce, and other applications through ongoing programmes, besides increasing the number of digital economic centres nationwide.
“These efforts will be intensified to ensure that our young generation masters these areas,” he said.
Annuar said this in reply to Balasubramaniam’s question on the government’s efforts to create a broader economy by encouraging participation from the youths in e-commerce, virtually and digitally, through the utilisation of FinTech.
- Bernama
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