SANDAKAN – A Sabah assemblyman wants the state government to explain if the increase in sales and service tax (SST) from 6% to 8% is going to impact electricity and water bills in the state.
Sri Tanjong assemblyman Justin Wong said while the federal government was imposing the increase on all taxable services, to begin in March, it was not clear if utility bills would be affected.
It has only said that food and beverages, telecommunications, parking services and logistics services would be exempted from the increase.
“As utilities are under state jurisdiction, Sabah must be transparent and announce to the people here if there is an increase in SST in our bills. The people deserve to know,” Wong said in a statement today.
The Warisan politician said if the SST hike were to be imposed on Sabah’s water and electricity bills, on top of the increase from the imbalance cost pass-through (ICPT) mechanism, Sabahans would be faced with “double jeopardy”.
“The prices of goods and services in Sabah are already rising as we speak, and we are expecting them to rise even further.
“Shouldn’t the Sabah government let us know why this is happening; what steps have they taken to reduce this increasing burden on our people?” he asked.
Wong added that he was also awaiting an explanation from the Sabah government on the ICPT mechanism from January 1 to June 30 that would raise electricity tariffs for Sabah’s large commercial and industrial users.
“This ICPT surcharge is in the form of receivables to TNB, which means that TNB collects it. Now I want to ask, where does this money go next? Who is going to get the revenue from ICPT collected from Sabah? The federal government? Or the Sabah state government’s Energy Commission?” Wong questioned.
He also said that since Sabah now has autonomy on matters involving electricity supply in the state, the state government should take quick action to abolish the implementation of ICPT in Sabah.
The mechanism was not suitable for Sabah, he added, because unlike in the peninsula, large industrial and commercial premises in Sabah were not giant, listed companies that could afford to absorb the rise in electricity tariffs without affecting the prices of its products and services. – January 13, 2024