PAC receives feedback from MoF on GST claims

KUALA LUMPUR: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has received feedback from the Ministry of Finance (MoF) relating to its two proposals on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund claims tabled in Parliament in July 2019.

Following PAC’s proposals, the MoF and the Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) has acted to put all GST collection in the Consolidated Revenue Account into the GST Refund Account compared with the previous practice of putting the GST collection into Consolidated Revenue Account.

"According to the report, the MoF will also amend the trust deed on GST Refund Account by making an additional trust deed to enable this fund to continue functioning even though GST was abolished on Sept 1, 2018," PAC said in statement today.

Yesterday, the PAC tabled its report in the Dewan Rakyat relating to the actions taken by the MoF on its two proposals based on the outcome of proceedings carried out on the outstanding GST refunds totalling RM19.4 billion.

Previously, PAC gave two proposals to the government in its report after carrying out 10 proceedings starting from Sept 12, 2018 till May 14, 2019.

"PAC carried out investigation on the issue after the former Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng alleged that some RM19.4 billion of the GST funds ‘were robbed’ by the Barisan Nasional government.

"The report also clarified that the MoF agreed on the proposals by PAC to ensure full compliance with the laws of the country in the implementation of the financial procedures, and towards this end, the ministry will add more members to the GST Refund committee," it said.

It explained that the Director, National Budget Office, and Section Secretary, Fiscal and Economics Division, MoF, are also included as the new members of the committee, which will be chaired by Treasury Secretary-General.

-- BERNAMA