PM hopes LHDN’s revenues for 2024 to be over RM197-billion projection

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim hopes that the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) would be able to collect more revenue than the board’s projection of RM197 billion this year.

He said LHDN had succeeded in creating a new record in tax collection last year of RM183.34 billion, which was RM7.8 billion, or 4.49 per cent, more than the total collected the year before.

Malaysia, however, still has a low tax base, which is around 11.2 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), compared to other neighbouring countries such as Singapore at 12.6 per cent and Thailand 16.4 per cent, he added.

He said he did not deny that the steps taken by LHDN had succeeded in increasing the country’s revenue but, at the same time, Anwar called upon companies and individuals to carry out their responsibilities and come forward to pay taxes.

“The number of companies paying tax is still low, around 435,000 companies compared to 1.5 million registered companies in Malaysia.

“This means that less than 29 per cent of registered companies pay tax,” he said at the 28th Revenue Day Celebration here yesterday.

As of Dec 31 last year, the number of individual taxpayers was 5.7 million with collection revenue of RM40.96 billion and for companies, it was 539,113 with collection revenue of RM98.77 billion.

Anwar said the increase in tax collection from the efforts of LHDN and the Customs Department had helped improve the Sumbangan Asas Rahmah (SARA) programme, which had doubled its payments as the number of recipients jumped to 700,000 versus 210,000 recorded in the year before.