Shopee, Lazada roll out additional fees in line with increasing SST

SHAH ALAM - Starting today, two popular online trading platforms Shopee and Lazada Malaysia, have introduced additional charges for goods purchases for users, aligning with the increase in sales and service tax (SST).

For Shopee platform, the relevant additional charge would be known as 'SST Shipping Cost,' and it would be imposed on users when making purchases on the e-commerce platform.

Shopee stated that the SST charge on this delivery fee was collected based on the Total Shipping Cost after deducting discounts.

According to Astro Awani's report, the introduction of such charges on the platform was something new.

Until Thursday, no such charges were imposed by the platform.

Shopee was seen implementing the charge in line with the two percent increase in SST charges, from six per cent to eight per cent, which has come into effect today.

Meanwhile, Awani also reported that Lazada Malaysia similarly announced the implementation of an eight per cent service tax charge.

This development saw an increase of two per cent from the previous six per cent, aligning with the government's announcement during the 2024 Budget.

Lazada said the service tax charge would be applied to transaction fees, user commission fees for using Lazada and any fees related to promotional programmes by sellers.

In addition to Lazada and Shopee, TikTok Shop has also announced the implementation of similar charges, which are also enforced during the same period.