Major increase in the price of raw materials
External factors include economic health, market stability, and natural factors, such as weather-related disasters.Raw materials are a major component of cost of goods sold. External factors are generally considered to be a substantial driver of raw materials price changes. Political unrest, weather and geological disasters, and global supply issues are the common factors that affect cost of goods sold. A change in materials price is a surefire way of affecting gross profit.
Implementation of 6% GST by government
As GST is more "efficient" than the current sales tax because it only taxes value added, and not gross sales value. This is hugely important for businesses, as it should reduce their input costs (even if the sales tax is purportedly single stage).

For the government, the burden and cost of collection is shifted to companies, which have an incentive to make the system work.

And that in turn means a greater tax yield for any given tax base.

It should also be remembered that Malaysia has a very narrow tax base - less than 20% of the population have income levels sufficiently high for them to be taxed, and only about 10% actually have to (after deducting allowances, rebates and deductions).

The income tax rate would have to be lifted fairly high to match what a GST would yield. Moreover, personal income tax is just 10% of the government revenue base, corporate tax is about 23%. Based on Pemandu's estimates, it looks like GST will yield 2x more than the current SST, but at a 3% lower tax rate.