Customs Dept launches operation to recover unpaid GST revenue
KUCHING: The Customs Department launched its Customs Blue Ocean Strategy 3.0 ( CBOS 3.0) Operation yesterday to boost the collection of GST revenue by RM3 billion this year.
Its Director- General Datuk Indera Subromaniam Tholasy said the operation will be targeting around 200,000 GST registered companies nationwide which did not submit their tax returns, have not paid up their tax and were GST registrants which failed to make full payment.
“CBOS 3.0 was implemented to provide awareness on the need for traders to comply with GST regulations,” he told a press conference after launching the state- level CBOS 3.0 Operation at Wisma Kastam here yesterday.
He stressed that all companies and traders involved will be given 30 days to comply with the GST regulations, failing which the Customs Department will carry out comprehensive audits or investigations on them to claim back the assessed tax.
“We will also take action by freezing the account or foreclose companies or traders who have evaded tax or collected GST but did not pay to the government.
“The GST revenue collected is from the rakyat and therefore traders do not have the right to keep it and they have to surrender this to the government who in turn can help the rakyat with this revenue,” he said.
In the last CBOS operation held nationwide last year, the Customs Department boosted its collection of GST revenue by RM1.5 billion.
Meanwhile, in operations carried out statewide from September to December last year, the State Customs Department detected and reclaimed GST revenue worth more than RM22 million.
On the other hand, for the months of January to March this year, it managed to reclaim GST revenue worth more than RM16 million, thus surpassing the CBOS 3.0 Sarawak Operation target of RM5,250,000 for the first quarter of this year.
Also present was State Customs Department director Ahmad Jii.