PUTRAJAYA, Aug 18 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim today again indicated his hesitation to reintroduce the Goods and Services Tax during a dialogue with businesses and ministries ahead of the tabling of Budget 2027, slated for October.

But Anwar, who is also the Finance Minister, suggested that he is open to incorporating some “elements” of the consumption levy, if it helps improve the Sales and Services Tax.

“We are open to studying ways to improve the tax system,” he told reporters after attending the Budget 2027 engagement session at the Finance Ministry here.   

“But if we are talking about GST alone, my concern, as I have said repeatedly, is that this means taxing everyone,” Anwar added.

Earlier during the dialogue Anwar said he had made public his view that GST is the most efficient tax system as far back as the 1990s, when he was then finance minister under the first Mahathir administration.

The first Pakatan Harapan (PH) government scrapped the GST as part of an election pledge that framed the consumption based tax as the primary cause of rising living costs, although some of the coalition leaders later concurred with views that GST was more structurally transparent and efficient.

The second PH led administration’s aggressive push to raise tax collection, have fuelled speculation Anwar may consider reintroducing the levy.

The PH chairman has indicated that the GST would only return once living standards and median income rises. 

“There is one thing I will not compromise on. I do not want a tax imposed on the people comprehensively,” he told reporters.

“Just like the view on the GST. GST is a ‘broad-based tax’, we tax all the people, and I disagree with that.”