“The finance ministry feels that expensive and luxurious items or ‘big ticket items’ should be subjected to tax,” minister Lim Guan Eng said in a statement.
Lim also said his ministry was still waiting for feedback from the public on what items should be included or struck off from the list.
His statement comes in the wake of protests by consumer groups against the proposed sales tax exemption for luxury items such as live Arowana fish, lobsters, caviar and other costly items such as light aircraft and cruise ships.
Consumers’ Association of Penang president SM Mohamed Idris had said many items on the exemption list should be taxed instead of being zero-rated, while Malaysia Consumers Movement president Darshan Singh Dhillon said the government could charge a higher rate of tax on luxury goods.
In 2015, PKR protested that luxury food such as lobsters had been zero-rated under the goods and services tax (GST) although they were mostly consumed by the higher income group.