IRBM: Viral claims on KPI for 2017 tax collection target untrue

KUALA LUMPUR: The Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) has not set a KPI target of RM6 million for its officers to achieve the tax collection target for 2017.
IRBM said it takes seriously the allegation in a viral Whatsapp message that it had set such a KPI target, and that its officers behaved in an unprofessional manner during an audit due to the target set.

"IRBM would like to inform that 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," it said in a statement issued today.
It also said these initiatives, strategies and status of the target set is monitored by the Ministry of Finance and IRBM Board Members, where Board Members are representatives from the public and private sector.
According to the statement, 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% 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% 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, IRBM will continue to carry out its responsibility as the country's main revenue collector, based on the existing tax laws. — Bernama