‘Nip graft in Customs and govt gets RM3bil’

Good time to buy: A man walking out of a shop with a 0 GST and SST sign in Petaling Jaya.

PUTRAJAYA: Fixing the leakages caused by corruption will help the government bridge the gap in the revenue shortfall between collection for the GST and the SST, says Datuk Seri Subromaniam Tholasy.

“When I first met (Finance Minister) Lim Guan Eng, he asked me, how much is the Good and Services Tax revenue and how much is the Sales and Service Tax revenue we expect to collect,” said The Royal Malaysian Customs Department director-general.

“There is a gap (between GST and SST) as SST revenue will be less than GST.

“He asked me, how will we patch the gap?” said Subromaniam, adding that he told Lim that revenue could be increased by combating corruption in the department.

“So, we at the department have a big task ahead,” Subromaniam added.

Speaking at a the Breakfast Talk programme titled “Combating Leakages on National Revenue” at the department’s headquarters here yesterday, he said there were issues regarding integrity in the department.

“We have to admit it (the issue). If we try to cover up, there will never be a solution,” he said.

Subromaniam said one of the ways to increase revenue could be to lessen the leakages in the import-export revenue collection.

“We will try to get RM3bil (from stopping leakages) in import-export,” he said, adding that there were also many companies that had not declared their actual GST collection.

“So, we will do an audit (on the companies). This will help the government bridge the difference between GST and SST revenue collection.”

He said the department wanted to move towards having a higher level of integrity and professionalism, in line with the objective of the new Pakatan Harapan government to achieve good governance.

MACC deputy chief commissioner (prevention) Datuk Shamsun Baharin Mohd Jamil and Transpa-rency International-Malaysia president Datuk Akhbar Satar also spoke at the talk. It was organised jointly by the department and the Malaysian Institute of Integrity.