Funds still available for NGOs to hold GST briefings: Ahmad Maslan

KUALA LUMPUR: The government is urging more non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to apply for the RM10,000 funding required to hold public briefing sessions on the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Deputy finance minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan said the applications should be put forward to the Ministry of Finance before April 1 this year.

"There are still funds available as the initial RM50 million allocation for this purpose is still not fully utilized. The size of the funding to be given out will depend on the event size and the number of participants attending the talk.

"I will personally be overseeing the talks conducted and give my input if and when necessary," he told reporters after giving a talk to members of the Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers (Bakti), here, today.

Among the issues raised at the talk were on how price control mechanisms could be implemented on home services such as plumbing, electricity-related services, cosmetic or beauty services, and medical-related services for personal needs.

"We hope the Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism ministry can look into this and come up with a proper guideline. We have received some grouses over the pricing of such services and I think a regulated and clear explanation should be given as to how it should be carried out.

"As for now there are no mechanism to control the pricing, which is something we should look into prior to the GST implementation," he said.

Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, wife of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, was present at the GST briefing. A total of 316,785 companies have registered for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) against an initial target of getting 240,000 companies to register for the tax. Ahmad said the increase in the number of GST-ready companies had resulted in tax collection improving by RM1 billion to RM24 billion.