Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad today proposed that Asean member nations introduce taxes on online businesses to increase their respective revenues.

Mahathir said the online businesses had "swallowed" conventional businesses.

Citing amazon.com as an example, he said the online bookstore had caused the folding of conventional bookstores.

“The online businesses which deal directly (with customers) have affected conventional stores, which, in turn, reduced business taxes’ collection.

“With online businesses, we don’t know who gains the profits (from tax collection),” he told the Malaysian media after attending the 34th Asean summit gala dinner in Bangkok yesterday.

Mahathir said he made the suggestion during a plenary session of the summit earlier yesterday.

Elaborating, the premier said at present, only the origin country of the online businesses gained profits through taxes.

“We didn’t get anything. Therefore, I have suggested a few things so other countries (where online businesses operated in) can also receive part of the profit tax,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mahathir said the plenary session also discussed other issues on Asean cooperation, including intra-Asean trade which he said was still very small in size.

“Therefore, something specific needs to be done to increase intra-Asean trade,” said Mahathir.

The closed-door plenary session was chaired by Thailand’s Prime Minister Jen Prayuth Chan o-cha.

- Bernama