Khairy Jamaluddin, who is tasked with heading the finance portfolio in the opposition coalition, said a 3% GST rate, half the rate of the consumption tax when it was introduced by the BN government in 2015, should be introduced among nine tax regimes.

“A more transparent and efficient GST should be reintroduced at a lower rate with more items being exempted,” he said, adding that the total revenue would match that of the sales and services tax (SST) that replaced the GST.

Six of the nine taxes proposed by BN today are new, including the soda tax, plastic tax and remittance tax.

Meanwhile, former deputy finance minister Ahmad Maslan said bringing back the GST would give the government some RM42 billion in revenue, half of which he said was through savings of some RM20 billion from tax evasion.

Khairy said BN would continue with the East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) and the High Speed Rail (HSR), two major projects that the PH government are reviewing.

Other proposals by the BN include restructuring the foreign workers’ levy and imposing a new charge on foreign remittance.

It also proposed a RM0.25 tax imposed on every litre of soda and a RM10 carbon tax on every metric tonne imposed on factories with a minimum of 25,000 metric tonnes of green house emissions.

A 15 sen plastic tax is also proposed on the use of plastic bags, where some RM1.46 billion is expected to be generated.

BN also proposed a capital tax to be imposed on any combined wealth that exceeds RM10 million, as well as tax on short-term share transactions.