During the announcement of Goods and Services Tax (GST) in Budget 2014, the government had proposed not to impose GST on basic food items and services. Based on the feedback received from all segments of  society, the government has agreed to widen the scope of items that will not be subjected to GST as follows:

(i)     All types of fruits whether local or imported; 
(ii)     White bread and wholemeal bread;
(iii)    Coffee powder, tea dust and cocoa powder;
(iv)     Yellow mee, kuey teow, laksa and meehoon;
(v)     The National Essential Medicine covering almost 2,900 medicine brands. These medicines are used to treat 30 types of diseases including heart failure, diabetes, hypertension, cancer and fertility treatment;
(vi)     Reading materials such as children’s coloring books, exercise and reference books, text  books, dictionaries and religious books; and 
(vii)    Newspapers.

In addition, the government has also agreed electricity consumption that is not subject to GST be increased from the first 200 units to 300 units.

This will benefit 70% of households.