KUCHING: Democratic Action Party (DAP) Sarawak chairman Chong Chieng Jen continues to appeal for a waiver of the State Sales Tax (SST) on imported tyres, even after having raised the matter in the just-adjourned State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting.

Chong, a lawyer by profession, said on behalf of the tyre traders in Sarawak, he had written to the Sarawak government seeking it to waive all SSTs effective from Jan 1, 2020, and also to cancel the imposition of the tax on tyres.

Among the reasons given was the imposition of SST, be it at 2.5 per cent or five per cent, would result in the price of tyres (in Sarawak) being the most expensive in the whole of Malaysia because Sarawak was the first and only state that imposed such SST on tyres, he pointed out.

“This is definitely not the kind of ‘Sarawak First’ that Sarawakians desire,” said Chong, who is Stampin MP and Padungan assemblyman, in a press statement yesterday.

“Such higher cost would not only affect the prices of tyres per se, but would ultimately cause prices of most goods and services to increase because tyres are an integral part of land transport, which forms the main logistics for most goods and services. The implementation of this SST would aggravate the inflation rate.”

Chong also pointed out most sectors had yet to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic 2020 and thus, the imposition of SST on imported tyres at this time could become hamper all efforts towards recovery.

“The move to collect the SST dating back from Jan 1, 2020, is likely to put many tyre dealers out of business because back in 2020, these dealers were not informed (about the tax) and thus, they had not collected SST from their customers at the point of sale of tyres.

“Plus, the profit margin for sales of tyres is very thin, due to the stiff competition in the industry.

“So to demand the dealers to settle the SST is to deprive them of the little profits that they have earned over the years,” said the DAP Sarawak chief.

He then pointed out that in the last DUN Sarawak sitting, Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas justified the imposition of such SST by saying that the revenue collected from it would be to ‘defray the expenses of disposing used tyres throughout the state’.

“Still, we sincerely hope that the government would accede to the appeal herein by cancelling the SST on tyres. However, should the Government still be adamant that the SST must be implemented, we hope that the implementation would be postponed to three years later so as to give the dealers and also the general consumers some ‘breathing space’ after we were all hit by the Covid-19 pandemic,” he stressed.

Based on some feedback, Chong said the SST was originally fixed at five per cent, effective Jan 1, 2020, before it was reduced to 2.5 per cent, effective January 2021.

“The tyre dealers were informed that the SST would be revised upwards to five per cent, with effect from January 2023.

“Despite it being introduced in Jan 1, 2020, the SST was not generally made known to the tyre dealers, and due to the Covid-19 pandemic, most did not register with the State Treasury Department.

“Recently, some tyre dealers were approached by the officers from the State Treasury Department who told them to register with the Comptroller, so as to enable the department to assess the SST payables, dating back from Jan 1, 2020,” said Chong.