Business are looking towards a challenging year with the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The question of how GST will affect SMEs in Malaysia was answered by SME Corporation Malaysia Chief executive officer Datuk Hafsah Hashim.

The areas that will experience changes are as follows:

• There will be some impact of the running of daily operation due to the GST compliant accounting systems. This will give rise to additional operations costs.

• SMEs will need to assess if their suppliers are GST registrants. This will help in the claiming of input tax.

• SMEs will need to evaluate the potential impact of GST on their pricing and plan to manage their cost.

The implementation of the GST would benefit SMEs that have registered in terms of better financial management over time. This can be achieved through proper record keeping, having trained staff and moving towards the use of electronic payments. Thus, all this enhancement would have an overall efficiency and productivity on the running of the daily operations of the SMEs.

Source: The Star Online, 5 January 2015