PAC: No money missing from GST refunds

KUALA LUMPUR: No money is missing from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds, says the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

In a statement on Monday (July 15), PAC chairman Datuk Dr Noraini Ahmad said that the GST refunds were used for government expenditure instead.

"The previous government had overestimated the net GST collection at a rate of 65% from the actual GST collection," she said.

She added that the Barisan Nasional government had collected the money and kept it in the consolidated revenue account and then transferred it stage by stage as decided by the GST refund repayment committee when it was needed.

However, Noraini said this was not in line with Section 54(2) of the GST Act 2014.

She added that the policy to transfer 35% from the total GST collection every year from the Consolidated Fund to the Federal Consolidated Fund when it is needed was not enough to cover the requests for GST refunds.

"Based on the statements during the proceedings, the PAC feels that the rate should be set to at least 42%," said Noraini.

Last August, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had told Parliament that the RM19.4bil was missing.

Lim had told the Dewan Rakyat that the former Barisan government had not been able to refund companies their credit tax from GST because 93% of the money had not been placed in the correct account.