KJ lodges police report on GST claims issues

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Khairy lodging a report at the Sentul District Police headquarters. — Bernama photo

KUALA LUMPUR: Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin yesterday lodged a police report in connection with the claim by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng that RM18 billion meant for GST refund were ‘robbed’ by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

Khairy said the allegations made by Lim on Wednesday in Parliament on the issue were serious and required concrete evidence.

“Yesterday (on Wednesday) in Parliament, I asked him (Guan Eng), would an investigation be made on this issue?”

“Guan Eng said his ministry will conduct an internal investigation to investigate the matter,” Khairy said after lodging a police report at the Sentul District Police headquarters here at 2pm.

He said Lim had to conduct an open investigation and not an internal investigation at the ministry level.

“We in BN also want to clear the name of the previous government, in the event of a robbery then bring those involved to the court.

“If not, then it must be explained the allegations are inaccurate and unfounded,” he said.

Khairy will also lodge a report with the Malaysian
Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) tomorrow on the same matter.

On Wednesday when tabling the Goods and Services Tax (GST) (Repeal) Bill 2018 in Parliament, Lim said the government would try to settle the arrears on the input tax refund for GST from next year.

He said the arrears of payment for the GST input tax claims from April 1, 2015 until May 31 amounted to RM19.4 billion.

However, the current balance in the Repayment Fund was only RM1.49 billion, meaning about RM18 billion was missing.

Lim said the RM18 billion was considered as a government revenue but was used to cover the deficit that led to the shortage.

Subsequently an internal investigation was being actively conducted by the Finance Ministry to identify the cause of the missing RM18 billion. — Bernama