KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has completed its investigative proceedings on the controversial loss of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) repayment fund with Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng being the last witness to give his statement yesterday.
PAC chairman Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said the committee would hold a meeting to conclude the investigation based on the evidence received and would table it to Parliament as soon as possible.
“We will have to sit down as we need to go into details of all evidence and documents given to us since last month,” he said after attending the proceeding at the Parliament Building here yesterday.
Meanwhile, Lim said he was shocked to learn that the PAC was under the impression that the RM19.4 billion repayment fund was still in the government trust fund.
Hence, he said the (finance) ministry would strive to prove it.
“I told them (PAC) it’s not there and I think it is clear that it’s not there. If it’s there, I would be having a big celebration, we wouldn’t have to take (money) from Petronas,” he said.
When tabling the Goods and Services Tax (Repeal) Bill 2018 last August, Lim said there was only a balance of RM1.486 billion in the GST repayment fund as RM18 billion of the RM19.4 billion input tax credit under the GST system since 2015 was “robbed” by the previous government. — Bernama