Property Hunter Magazine Property Hunter Magazine Issue 53 - April 2014 | Page 79

REHDA Wants GST Be Implemented Gradually Changes at the Top in Tropicana any method (segregation between residential and commercial property development) -- in claiming residual input tax credits as this would help ease the administrative burden when claiming residual input tax. The Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (REHDA) has proposed that the goods and services tax (GST) be implemented gradually as it will have an adverse impact on the affordability of housing to the people. Its Finance and Investment Committee Chairman, Datuk Ng Seing Liong, said the 6% GST, which would be implemented from April 1, 2015, was quite high and the consumers would be burderned by it. “The developers’ margins will also be lower with the GST,” he said at a media briefing on ‘GST -- Impact on the Housing Industry’. Ng said REHDA has submitted its proposals on the GST to the government and was awaiting the response. “REHDA has requested the Finance Ministry give serious consideration to the proposals as the implementation of GST in its current form will cause financial hardship, adding to the costs of development resulting in overall increase in house prices and will be eventually passed on to the buyers,” Ng said. He said one of them was that REHDA wanted the government to extend the zero-rated goods and services to major cost components of property development projects like steel bars, iron, cement, concrete and aggregate sand or consider provisions for some relief to the suppliers to help them deal with cash flow issue. “The suppliers may end up passing the costs in the form of higher prices,” he said. The industry also wanted the stamp duty on transfers of real property be maintained at the current maximum 3% instead of the proposed four, he said. Ng said the imposition of GST would add another layer of cost as there were already multiple ‘taxes’ imposed such as real property gains tax, Construction Industry Development Board levy and service tax. Another proposal, he said, was to allow developers adopt a fixed allocation -- either builtup, land area (acreage) or For sale purchase agreements of land entered prior to appointed date of April 2015, payments received of invoices issue prior to the appointed date where the supply of land is made available after appointed date will not attract GST, he said. Tropicana’s first project in Kota Kinabalu, Tropicana Landmark Tropicana Corporation Bhd has promoted two key members of its senior management team and appointed a second group managing director, as the company seek to boost its transformation into becoming one of the top developer in the country. Former group managing director Datuk Dickson Tan was promoted to deputy group chief executive officer. His deputy, Edmund Kong Woon Jun, has been appointed group managing director. The group has also appointed Kok Kong Chin, who was previously a banker at CIMB Group, the other group managing director effective March 14. Better known as KC Kok in investment banking circles, Kok was responsible for bringing the private equity firm, CVC Capital Partners, to Malaysia during the privatisation if Magnum Corp Bhd in 2007. Then Kok was a senior member of CIMB Investment Bank. “The promotion of Dickson Tan and Edmund Kong to positions of greater responsibility is timely as it coincides with our strategic transformation plan for accelerated growth and unlocking of value of the Group’s substantial asset base and landbank,’’ Tan Sri Danny Tan Chee Sing, founder and group executive vice chairman said in a statement. “I trust that with the capabilities of both Dickson Tan and Edmund Kong, together with Datuk Yau Kok Seng who joined us in January last year as group CEO. www.PropertyHunter.com.my 79