This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on March 5, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said yesterday Malaysia’s 2018 inflation at 1% versus 2017’s 3.8% is proof that the sales and service tax (SST) played a role in mitigating price increases if compared to the goods and services tax (GST).

Guan Eng said the 2018’s inflation also proved that the government’s move to control fuel prices had lightened the people’s burden.

“The decrease in the number of taxable goods and services is proven via the decrease in government income where annual SST collection is RM21 billion compared to the GST’s annual collection at RM44 billion,” Guan Eng said at the launch of the Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) Belanjawanku scheme in Bangi, Selangor yesterday.

According to Guan Eng, Belanjawanku scheme is an expenditure guide published by the EPF and the University of Malaya’s Social Wellbeing Research Centre.

The scheme will help Malaysians understand their spending patterns to increase financial literacy and personal finance management skills, he added.