MoF confident customs dept can achieve va programme target

KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Finance (MoF) is confident that the Royal Malaysian Customs Department will be able to achieve its target of collecting between RM1 billion and RM2 billion under the VA Programme from early this year until Sept 30, 2022.

Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz said the department had been given the mandate to implement the VA (voluntary disclosure and amnesty) programme, a government effort in tax reform to encourage taxpayers to come forward voluntarily and properly report taxes.

"The department has played its role as one of the important agencies that drives government policies and initiatives. For example, it has made a significant contribution in realising the National Economic Recovery Plan (Penjana).

"This includes the granting of penalty remission, as well as exemption of sales tax, service tax, tourism tax and export duty," he said in conjunction with the 40th World Customs Day today.

Tengku Zafrul said the achievement made in the collection of customs and other import duties could be further improved from the point of view of revenue collection.

"I understand that there are challenges in terms of transshipment, as well as import duty exemptions following free-trade agreements," he said.

However, he is confident that the department will be able to achieve better targets, as the country’s trade volume continues to increase and rise more than RM2 trillion for the first 11 months of 2021.

"Of the total value, RM1.1 trillion is exports and RM894 billion is imports," he said.

Tengku Zafrul expects the value to continue to increase as the global and the country’s economies are poised to stage a recovery this year.

"I am also confident that higher targets can be achieved with the use of additional physical assets such as more modern scanners, as well as fast patrol boats by the Customs Department," he said.

Besides, he said the MoF and its agencies need to adopt a more innovative culture and thinking to produce human capital capable of operating strategically and systematically.

He said the transformation of human capital should go hand in hand with a wider use of technology to provide a better safeguard that will definitely contribute to more successes by major MoF agencies such as the Customs Department.

The minister said the mobilisation of the administrative machinery has enabled the deparrtment to record an above-target revenue collection for 2021.

"It cannot be denied that this effort and success reflects the significant role played by the department as an indirect tax collection agency, as well as being one of the largest revenue contributors for the country," he said, adding that he hopes the momentum will be further enhanced this year.

He said the government's efforts were a manifestation of concern and noble efforts to help the affected groups and sectors by formulating people-centered economic growth.

"The government has implemented eight economic assistance and stimulus packages amounting to RM530 billion, as well as Budget 2021 worth RM322.5 billion and Budget 2022 Budget worth RM332.1 billion," he added.

In another development, he congratulated MoF staff for gaining the recognition of the Adam Smith Awards ASIA 2021, where the ministry was adjudged Best Funding Solution on April 28, 2021, besides being listed among the five most outstanding ministries. - Bernama