KUALA LUMPUR: The arrears of refunds for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) reported by the Royal Malaysian Customs as at June 5 this year amounted to RM19.47 billion involving 122,580 taxable persons.
According to the second series of the 2017 Auditor-General’s Report, RM1.45 billion is the refund for taxable persons that has been approved by the Customs officer but has yet to be paid by the Customs Department’s accountant due to the inadequate balance of funds for the GST refund.
“A sum of RM9.65 billion is a claim for a refund which is still under confirmation by Customs officers as at June 5 this year. A sum of RM3.90 billion is a claim for a refund by taxable persons who have no taxable supplies, namely taxable persons who have no output tax.
“In addition, a total of RM0.95 billion are taxable persons given clearance by the Ministry of Finance from paying taxes but allowed to claim refunds. A total of RM3.52 billion is a claim for a refund which is still under investigation and auditing by the Customs department,” according to the report.
However, there is a difference between the GST’s outstanding refund amount reported by the Customs Department and the National Audit Department (JAN). The amount reported by the JAN is RM19.55 billion and out of that amount only RM1.41 billion is a claim for the refund arrears that has been approved but has yet to be paid to the taxable persons until May 31 this year, according to the report.
The report said that since the MyGST system was not used after the implementation of the Sales and Service Tax (SST) from Sept 1 this year, the Audit recommended three actions to be taken by the Customs department.
Firstly, the Customs must submit the refund arrears that has been confirmed to the Finance Ministry for repayment action; secondly the Customs department should resolve the taxable persons cases that have been late in sending statements by imposing appropriate legal action.
Thirdly, the Customs department needs to resolve the arrears so that the actual status of the arrears eligible for reimbursement can be confirmed. – Bernama
