Malaysia widens service tax to maintenance, repair, logistics and karaoke from 26 February 2024
This page records one dated change. For the rules in Malaysia as they stand today, see the Malaysia guide →
- Jurisdiction
- Malaysia
- Tax
- Service Tax
- Change type
- Update
- Status
- In force
- Impact
- FYI
- Announced
- 23 February 2024
- Effective
- 26 February 2024
- Instrument
- MY-SUBSIDIARY-LEGISLATION-P-U-A-62-2024
- Authority
- Attorney General's Chambers, Malaysia (Warta Kerajaan Persekutuan / Federal Gazette)
- Verified
- Fetched from official source · high confidence
Malaysian providers of maintenance or repair services, logistic services (RM500,000 registration threshold), karaoke centres, brokering and underwriting, and the businesses that buy from them.
No action — monitoring only.
The Service Tax (Amendment) Regulations 2024 [P.U.(A) 62/2024], gazetted 23 February 2024 and in force from 26 February 2024, amended the First Schedule to the Service Tax Regulations 2018 [P.U.(A) 214/2018] to widen the scope of taxable services. It added maintenance or repair services to Group G (with exclusions for residential maintenance management and residential building repairs), inserted a new Group J for logistic services (registration threshold RM500,000, with exclusions for international and transhipment movements), added karaoke centres to Group C, extended Group I item 2 to digital services, and redefined brokering and underwriting services in Group I (excluding individual medical and life insurance/takaful and overseas risks). The companion rate order P.U.(A) 64/2024 taxes the new maintenance and repair services at 8% and logistic services at 6% from 1 March 2024.
What changed in detail
The Service Tax (Amendment) Regulations 2024 [P.U.(A) 62/2024] were gazetted on 23 February 2024 and came into operation on 26 February 2024. They amend the First Schedule to the Service Tax Regulations 2018 [P.U.(A) 214/2018], which lists the taxable services by group.
Among other amendments, the Regulations widen the scope of service tax in these five places:
- Group G gains maintenance or repair services, excluding residential maintenance management and repairs to residential buildings.
- A new Group J taxes logistic services, with a registration threshold of RM500,000. International and transhipment movements are excluded.
- Group C adds karaoke centres.
- Group I item 2 is extended to digital services.
- Brokering and underwriting in Group I are redefined, excluding individual medical and life insurance or takaful, and risks located overseas.
The companion rate order, the Service Tax (Rate of Tax) (Amendment) Order 2024 [P.U.(A) 64/2024], set the rates for the new services from 1 March 2024: 8% for maintenance and repair, and 6% for logistic services.
What it means
This was the first half of the March 2024 package. P.U.(A) 62 decided what is taxable; P.U.(A) 64 decided how much, which is why the new services had a four-day window in scope (26 to 29 February 2024) before the 8% rate arrived. The same Regulations also deleted items 3 and 6 of Group I and added customs agents as a second Group J item. The scope changes are still in force in November 2026. They were then built on by the wider July 2025 expansion (P.U.(A) 172/2025), which rewrote Group H and added rental, construction and education. Logistics is the item that lasted best at 6%: the 2025 rate order kept it on the reduced-rate schedule.
Proof
These Regulations come into operation on 26 February 2024.
Source snapshot of the official page. Open full size ↗Archived from the official distribution · P.U.(A) 62/2024 — Service Tax (Amendment) Regulations 2024 (Federal Government Gazette, 23 February 2024) · lom.agc.gov.my