GEORGE TOWN, Sept 11 — Housing prices in Penang will be cheaper by 10 per cent due to the Sales and Service Tax (SST) exemptions for some building materials, Penang Rehda confirmed today.
Penang Rehda chairman Datuk Toh Chin Leong said the SST exemptions on materials such as cement and rock will reduce the costs of construction.
“Replacing the GST with SST has reduced costs and we have discussed with our members that any savings from SST will be passed on to the buyers so we will advise our members to reside overall pricing by 10 per cent,” he said.
Toh said this will only apply to houses above the affordable housing price range of RM300,000.
“For affordable housing, which is partly subsidised by developers, we will look at reducing the prices by six per cent,” Toh said in a joint press conference with Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng today.
He added that this discount will be applicable for upcoming projects after the implementation of SST this month.
“We will discuss with our members to see if some of them can implement this discount for some ongoing projects,” he added.
In welcoming the move by Penang Rehda, Lim hoped that developers nationwide will follow in the footsteps of Penang developers to reduce the prices of houses nationwide.
Lime said developers nationwide should also be able to reduce house prices as the exemption applies nationwide.
Earlier, Lim said the prices of some cars have also reduced after the implementation of SST.
“Several types of cars are now priced lower such as Perodua, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and BMW after SST,” he said.
He said the prices for these cars have reduced between RM2,000 and RM3,000.
Lim reiterated that the SST is different from the previous administration’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) as only companies with business revenue of RM1.5 million has to pay SST.
“There were only 4,372 registrants and we collected RM711 million, about RM500 million less than GST,” he said.
He said small establishments such as coffee shops and restaurants that do not earn RM1.5 million are exempted because the government wants to help these small businesses.
“This is also to ensure prices at these smaller establishments won’t increase,” he said.
