KUCHING: Datuk Richard Wee Liang Chiat has urged the federal government to give a chance to the hawkers and small traders to have more time to comply with E-invoice application.
The Federation of Chinese Associations president said this as the E-Invoice application is set imposed by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) for the whole country for all taxpayers.
“Most of these hawkers and petty traders want more time to know how the applications work in their business operation.
“As you know, hawkers and small traders’ businesses are very subjective and this policy could hinder their operations and thus livelihood,” he said.
He said this when met by reporters after meeting with Kuching, Samarahan and Sarawak Hawkers association leaders at the Mandarin Restaurant here on Thursday.
Wee stated that such government policies and applications that were imposed on hawkers and small traders could be tedious and cumbersome as the implementation is something new for most of the hawkers.
“We (the association) want IRB to meet with the hawkers and small traders to explain further on how the mechanism works on their business with the E-invoices.
“A grace period would benefit all parties involved, as it is already part of government policy,” he added.
Wee also stressed the association had written a letter to the state government to present their views on this new policy to be imposed on July 1, 2025.
“For us, the grace period is important as many hawkers and traders are computer illiterate and not used to technologies dealing with their small businesses.
“Even bigger business operations could have a hiccup with systems, what more to small businesses, especially those not used to the ‘internet-of-things (IoT).
“We hope the government could understand the issues faced by these hawkers and small traders before they could delve into using the applications,” he added.
Additionally, Malaysian Federation of Hawkers and Small Traders Associations president Voon Chin Leong expressed the same sentiment, noting that the federal government needs to be lenient in imposing the policy.
“Many hawkers and petty traders are not familiar with the applications and may not even know how to use them,” he said.
For the record, there are 68 hawkers and petty traders associations in the country with 16 of them in Sarawak.
