KUALA LUMPUR: The Royal Malaysian Customs Department said refunds for the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to eligible companies will be paid out either in a lump sum or carried out in stages for larger sums under a special mechanism developed by the department.
Customs Director-General Datuk Seri Subromaniam Tholasy today said most of the claims for GST refunds made to the department has cleared scrutiny and payouts in stages have commenced and is expected to proceed until year-end.
However, he said to safeguard the taxes, the department intends to implement a retention sum or a bank guarantee (BG) as a choice for GST-registered companies.
“We do not want to hold back the refunds and have approved the payments for all the companies involved. However, it has to be carried out in stages.” he said
Subromaniam said the bank guarantee to be implemented by Customs would be at a minimum rate of 30% of the sum claimed by companies.
He said for amounts under RM50,000, desk audits have been completed and full payment of the refunds have commenced.
Subromaniam said the claims for sums under RM50,000 made up to more than 80% of the claims made by companies.
He said for claims amounting to between RM50,000 and RM100,000, a payment of 80% of the sum would be made and a 20% retention sum imposed.
He said the retention sum would be released after a field visit or sample audit is carried out within a year.
As for amounts exceeding RM100,000, the RMCD will payout 70% of the claimed sum and a 30% retention sum imposed. The retention sum will be refunded after a field audit and risk management are conducted.
Subromaniam said the companies involved would only bear costs of between 0.9% and 1.5% whereby it will be given the choice to replace the bank guarantee method to a retention sum.
It was revealed that over 121,000 companies and individuals had not received their GST refunds since 2015 and that the previous government had withheld GST refunds amounting to RM19.25 billion. — Bernama
