KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 21 — There will be no increase in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate of 6 per cent, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today when tabling Budget 2017.

"I want to stress here — don’t trust rumours that the GST rate would be hiked. All that is just empty talk and it’s not true at all,” Najib said.

Najib announced that Putrajaya had also managed to rake in almost RM30 billion in GST collection between April 2015 and October 19 this year.

"I am delighted to report that through GST, almost RM30 billion was successfully collected till October 19, 2017,” he said.

Najib said that the implementation of GST had also diversified government revenue sources, as there are only 2.1 million income tax payers of the 14.6 million-strong workforce. 

Putrajaya introduced the broad-based consumption tax in April last year in a bid to broaden the country’s tax base and address an over-reliance on petroleum-derived income.