IRBM: Viral claims on KPI target untrue

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KUALA LUMPUR: The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) has drawn the attention of the public on a Whatsapp  posting which has gone viral in the social media regarding the setting of RM6 million target in KPI for IRBM officers, to achieve the tax collection target for 2017.

IRBM denies that it has set such a target for its audit officers and takes seriously the allegation that its officers behave in an unprofessional manner during an audit due to the target set.

IRBM says the annual tax collection target for IRBM is set by the government and it is made known to the public during the tabling of the country’s annual budget by the Finance Minister.

Therefore, IRBMs initiatives and strategies to achieve the target set has been planned as early as November 2016, and implemented beginning January 2017. These initiatives, strategies and status of the target set is monitored by the Ministry of Finance and IRBM Board Members, where these Board Members are representatives from the public and private sector, it says.

Based on the current tax collection trend, there is a positive increase in tax collection as compared to the same period last year.

Besides that, Malaysia’s economic growth of 5.8 per cent in the second quarter of this year, as reported by Bank Negara on 18 August 2017, shows that Malaysia’s economy is able to surpass the previous projection of 4.3-4.8 per cent set earlier.

Based on this positive economic growth, coupled with IRBMs enforcement and tax education strategies for this year, which is to make compliance easy and non-compliance difficult, IRBM pledged to continue to carry out its responsibility as the country’s main revenue collector, based on the existing tax laws in place.

At the same time, IRBM also remind taxpayers  to keep records pertaining to their income and expenses for a period of 7 years, as stipulated under the Income Tax Act 1967, to facilitate checks during an audit by IRBM.

The public is also advised to contact IRBM should they face any issues during the audit process.

Full details, such as the name of the officer, date of audit and the issue arising must be informed to IRBM for further action. — Bernama