KUALA LUMPUR: The fact that the government had paid RM24.7 billion in tax refunds to companies and individuals has in itself proved that there was an outstanding that was due, said political secretary to the Finance Minister Tony Pua.
He said of the total, the government had returned RM12.6 billion to more than 70,000 companies under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds while of the remaining, a total RM8.1 billion was paid to over 124,000 companies and RM4 billion to 1.8 million individuals in the income tax refunds.
The government made these payments using the RM30 billion in the special dividend received from Petronas this year, said Pua.
“Surely we cannot say that the government had refunded money that was not due to them… the government is not rich to do so,” he said during a session at the one-day bond conference, jointly organised by RAM Holdings Bhd and Securities Industry Development Corporation here yesterday.
In its report on the overdue RM19.4 billion GST refunds that was tabled at the Dewan Rakyat today, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had attached briefing slides by the Royal Malaysian Customs Department which showed that as at May 31, 2018, a total of RM1.5 billion in GST refunds were approved but have not been paid.
The Customs also disclosed that RM9.6 billion were still in review, RM3.9 billion were related to issues of non-taxable supplies, RM900 million were related to exemption issues, and RM3.5 billion were still under investigation. — Bernama