The Minister for Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry ministry, Mustapa Mohamed, has clarified that the government has no intention of reducing excise duty, either for imported cars or for those produced in the domestic market.
Addressing the Dewan Rakyat (House of Representatives), he said that any sudden downward revision in excise duty would have a significant impact on the government’s revenue from excise duty, the national news agency Bernama reports. This is currently estimated at around Ringgits 7bn (US$2.3bn).
Such a reduction is also seen as affecting the overall growth of the domestic automotive industry in a negative manner, Mustapa added.
“The government is aware that the domestic automotive industry has to be developed further to become more competitive and offer more benefits to the people, particularly in selling cars at a reasonable price,” Bernama quotes him as saying.
