‘Firms that didn’t get refunds should seek legal help’

KUALA LUMPUR: Companies unable to collect their Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds from the Customs Department should seek legal advice, said Lee Hishamuddin Allen & Gledhill (LHAG) partner S. Saravana Kumar.

He said companies could consult legal advisers if they did not get a positive response from the authorities on their refunds.

Saravana said this after the LHAG Tax, Sales and Services Tax (SST) Customs seminar here yesterday, when asked to comment on news reports that RM18 billion in GST input tax credit had gone missing since 2015.

Yesterday, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng alleged that since the implementation of the GST on April 1, 2015, the GST input tax credit to businesses was supposed to have amounted to RM19.4 billion as of May 31, 2018, but only RM1.5 billion remained in the trust fund.

Under GST, businesses were allowed to claim tax refunds on purchases two weeks after submission of documents.

Setiawangsa member of parliament Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said that GST might be reintroduced in the future when incomes increased.

“More than half of Malaysians earn less than RM1,700 per month.

“The GST tax net is bigger and is thus a burden on the people,” he said, adding GST was a good tax system, but unfortunately, did not suit the current situation, where the average income was relatively low.

Once the Sales and Services Tax (SST) took effect on Sept 1, the government must ensure that the prices go down, he said.

“We have received feedback that the zero-rated GST did not bring down prices of goods so much due to monopoly.

“Therefore, the implementation of SST should be under close watch to ensure prices do not skyrocket.”

...the implementation of SST (Sales and Services Tax) should be under close watch to ensure prices do not skyrocket, NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD

Setiawangsa member of parliament