Customs eyes RM3b more in GST in 2017
CBOS PLAN: Amount is expected to come from unpaid, underdeclared GST
Customs deputy director-general (enforcement and compliance) GST-registered premises in yesterday. Pic by Mohd Azren Jamaludin
THE Customs Department aims to collect an additional RM3 billion in Goods and Services Tax (GST) next year following the implementation of its Customs Blue Ocean Strategy (CBOS) initiative.
The amount is expected to come from unpaid or under-declared GST.
Its deputy director-general (enforcement and compliance), Datuk T. Subromaniam, said since CBOS was implemented on Sept 1, the department had visited about 20,000 GST registrants nationwide and collected an additional RM1 billion in unpaid, or under-declared GST.
Under the initiative, the department would focus on informed compliance rather than enforced compliance.
“We found that there are people who are confused or do not understand the GST requirements.
“With this initiative, we will focus on educating them so that they can have a proper understanding of GST and will make declarations and payments to the department,” he said after launching the CBOS initiative at Menara Kastam here yesterday.
Present was Customs director of compliance management Datuk Abdul Latif Abdul Kadir.
For next year, Subromaniam said the department aimed to visit 200,000 registrants nationwide.
In total, he said, there were 430,000 businesses that had registered for GST.
He said the department would target five categories of GST registrants: restaurant owners, retailers, contractors, hardware store owners and entertainment centres.
“I would like to urge business
(right) inspecting a owners to refer to us if they have any confusion or misunderstanding about GST so that we can help them.
“They do not have the right to keep the GST that they have collected.”
He said since the implementation of GST, the department had opened about 4,000 investigation papers on offences relating to GST.
“Of that total, we have charged about 400 cases in court, mostly for failing to submit GST statements, submitting statements without making payments, and declaring and paying less than the supposed amount.
“For us, we would rather educate and advise registrants instead of taking them to court.
“However, if they are stubborn, we will take action against them.”
Subromaniam said he hoped the approach would help business owners understand the importance of GST.
“The department will continue to work hard to achieve the target of collecting RM40 billion in GST as announced in the 2017 Budget.”