The Prime Minister's Office ("PMO") has announced that, from 1 January 2019, the Malaysian Government will implement a standardised new minimum wage of RM1,050 per month or RM5.05 per hour nationwide (including Sabah and Sarawak). The decision to raise the minimum wage was made after considering the recommendations submitted by the National Wages Consultative Council (MPGN) following its review of the Minimum Wage Order 2016. Pursuant to the Minimum Wage Order 2016, the minimum wage per month in Peninsular Malaysia is RM1,000, while that in Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan is RM920.
In its announcement, the PMO explained that the increase in the minimum wage was in line with the economic situation of the country. The PMO also pointed out it would be more appropriate to have a periodic increase – as opposed to a drastic increase – in salary so as not to jeopardise the operations of the businesses, especially the small and medium enterprise owners, which would eventually lead to retrenchment.
On 12 September 2018, the Dewan Negara (Upper House of Malaysian Parliament or the Senate) sitting rejected the Anti-Fake News (Abolition) Bill 2018, notwithstanding the motion was earlier passed in the Dewan Rakyat (Lower House of Malaysian Parliament or the House of Representatives) to repeal the controversial Anti-Fake News Act 2018.
This was announced by Senate President Tan Sri S. A. Vigneswaran, after block voting saw 28 members of the Senate vote against it while 21 voted in support and three others abstained.
The Anti-Fake News Act 2018, which was purportedly enacted to address fake news and related matters, was pushed through by the former ruling government, Barisan Nasional, and passed in Parliament on 2 April 2018 despite protests from then opposition lawmakers.
The current government, Pakatan Harapan, in its election manifesto promised to repeal the Act. According to the Pakatan Harapan Government, fake news may be dealt with under existing laws such as the Penal Code, the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984, and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
From 1 September 2018, the Sales and Services Tax ("SST") has replaced the Goods and Services Tax ("GST"). The SST was reintroduced after the Malaysian Government repealed the GST in early August.
The SST is a single-stage tax, where the sales ad valorem tax is charged upon taxable goods manufactured and sold by a taxable person in Malaysia, as well as upon taxable goods imported into Malaysia. Service tax is charged on taxable services provided in Malaysia and not on imported or exported services.
A taxable person is one that manufactures taxable goods or provides taxable services with an annual turnover exceeding MYR500,000. A taxable person is also a person who provides taxable services (e.g. hotel, insurance, club, gaming, telecommunication, legal, accounting, architectural, security, etc) in the course of its business in Malaysia and is liable to be registered or is registered under the Service Tax Act 2018.
A tax of between 5% and 10% is imposed on the sale of goods. The service tax is set at 6%. The GST, which covered a broader range of items and services compared with the SST, was set at 6 per cent.
A total of 5,443 consumer items have been exempted from the new sales tax. This is 10 times the number of exempted goods under the GST. Among the exempted goods are live animals, unprocessed food, vegetables, medicines, machinery and chemicals.
In August 2018, the Personal Data Protection Commissioner published the Public Consultation Paper No. 1/2018 entitled "The Implementation of Data Breach Notification" (the "Public Consultation Paper") which, upon coming into force, would be applicable to organisations that are required to register under the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 ("PDPA") and those that process personal data or have control over or authorise the processing of any personal data (i.e. registered data users under the PDPA).
Pursuant to the Public Consultation Paper, the Commissioner intends to implement a data breach notification mechanism in Malaysia, where data users are required to notify and inform the relevant authorities and affected parties when a data breach has occurred within the organisation. Organisations will be required to report on:
- the details about the data breach (e.g. summary of event and circumstances, estimated number of affected data subjects);
- the containment and control measures by the data user;
- the details and requirements with regards to the notification; and
- the details on the organisations' training and guidance in relation to data protection prior to the data breach incident.
The period for submissions has since passed. It is likely that a data breach notification regime will be rolled out within the next 6 to 12 months.
