KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Malaysian Customs Department implemented stringent measures to minimise the leakages in the refund process of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as well as to curb activities of companies submitting fraudulent claims.
Customs Department’s central zone internal tax division operations director Datuk Ahmad Maher Abd Jalil said one of the measures implemented was to pay a visit to the company submitting the claim to ensure that it really existed.
“Secondly, for claim that involves millions of ringgit, the company will be audited first before the claim to be processed,” he told reporters after appearing as a guest on the ‘Ruang Bicara’ talk show, produced by the Bernama News Channel last night.
He said most traders involved in this fraudulent claims were those registered with the Companies Commission of Malaysia.
“These traders will submit fraudulent statements to the Customs Department to obtain the refund of GST.
“We will track down the owner of the company and the mastermind behind this activity,” he said, adding that the department was now more careful in processing the GST tax refund to traders.
In the meantime, he said the main focus of the Customs Department this year was to eradicate the smuggling of cigarettes and liquor.
He said stiffer penalties for those involved in smuggling and selling contraband cigarettes was hoped to create awareness for them not to engage in such activities. — Bernama
