The Prime Minister tonight announced that the exemption of Sales Tax (SST) which began on June 15, 2020 and was due to end at the end of 2020 but was then extended till June 30, 2021 has again been extended. This time, the extension continues till the end of 2021. The exemption is provided as one of the measures to help support business sustainability in these difficult times, especially with another imposition of a total lockdown forcing many businesses to close from June 1 to June 14.

The exemption conditions are unchanged: for all models assembled locally, full exemption of the 10% tax will be given while for models imported in XBU (completely built-up) form, the exemption will be half, ie 5%. While the savings for low-priced models may not be significant, they can be amount to quite a lot for the more expensive models.

The sales tax exemption has not been provided for pick-up trucks as they are classified as commercial vehicles, and the government is already providing other forms of support to the commercial sector.