“Sweet” tax is the only tax this year

There will be no new tax for this year, except for sugar tax which was announced during the 2019 Budget, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced today.

“It implementation will be delayed as we want to ensure that the mechanism is effective enough to meet health objectives,” he said.

The excise tax of 40 sen per litre on sweetened beverages which supposed to start on April 1, 2019, however, has been postponed to July 1, 2019.

Last year Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said that the sugar tax would only be on beverages exceeding 5 grams of sugar per 100 millilitres, as well as juices that contain more than 12 grams per 100 millilitres.