KUALA LUMPUR: The government has granted an exemption of the e-invoice issuance to small traders with annual sales below RM150,000, benefitting over 700,000 small traders such as hawkers as they no longer need to issue e-invoices, said Finance Minister II Amir Hamzah Azizan.
He added that to continue supporting micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with adequate preparation time, the government has also agreed to postpone the implementation phase of e-invoicing for MSMEs with annual sales of between RM150,000 and RM500,000 to Jan 1, 2026.
“In addition, a six-month transition period will also be provided for this group of traders, benefitting over 240,000 MSMEs,“ he said in response to a question from Lim Guan Eng (PH-Bagan) in the Dewan Rakyat on whether the threshold for e-invoicing would be raised for an annual turnover of RM150,000 to RM500,000.
The third phase of the full implementation of e-invoicing will begin on July 1, 2025, involving all types of businesses, including MSMEs. The implementation of e-invoicing began on Aug 1, 2024, for companies with annual sales exceeding RM100 million.
From Jan 1, 2025, the second phase of e-invoicing began for companies with annual sales between RM25 million and RM100 million.
Since the initiation of the e-invoicing programme, 25,173 companies have used the e-invoice system, resulting in the issuance of a total of 181.3 million e-invoices.
Meanwhile, Lim also asked whether employers would be exempt from contributing to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) for their foreign workers to ease their financial burden. Amir Hamzah said the mandatory EPF contribution for foreign workers is aimed at creating a level playing field between local and foreign workers.
“Without mandatory contributions for foreign workers, the cost of hiring foreign workers is lower compared to hiring local workers. Therefore, this mandatory contribution expansion indirectly encourages the employment of more local workers,“ the minister explained.
He said employers who make a two per cent EPF contribution for foreign workers are also eligible for tax deductions on such expenditures, limited to 19 per cent of the total wages of the worker, regardless of whether the worker is a citizen or a non-citizen.
On Feb 3, 2025, the government announced that the employer’s contribution for foreign workers would be set at two per cent, with the employee’s share also at two per cent.
