Deputy finance minister Liew Chin Tong said the SST will remain as it is easier to understand and has been in place for more than 50 years. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: The government will retain the sales and service tax (SST) while incorporating "good" features of the goods and services tax (GST), deputy finance minister Liew Chin Tong said today.

Liew said the SST is easier to understand and has been in place for more than 50 years. He said the government would incorporate useful elements of the GST, including measures to prevent cascading and double taxation.

He also questioned whether the GST was necessarily a better system, saying it would require about 480,000 companies to act as tax-collecting agents, compared with about 80,000 under the SST.