KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 3 -- A new survey by the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) has revealed that a significant majority of local manufacturers are calling for a return to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system, citing deep-seated concerns over the current Sales and Service Tax (SST) framework.

The findings, released today at Wisma FMM, showed that 61 per cent of respondents back the reintroduction of the GST to replace the existing SST.

The shift in sentiment is driven largely by frustrations over "tax cascading" - a phenomenon where unrecoverable taxes on raw materials and business inputs become embedded in final production costs, ultimately hurting competitiveness.

According to the FMM survey, 60 per cent of manufacturers ...