KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has managed to claim the outstanding sales tax on oil and gas products from several companies after court proceedings and mitigation were held, the state assembly was told.
State Finance Minister II, Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun (pic) said previously that these companies had not paid the tax.
“However, on Oct 3 this year, two companies paid up their outstanding sales tax amounting to RM79.41mil,” he said during the state assembly sitting's question-and-answer session on Thursday (Dec 1).
This includes RM70.05mil from the first company and RM9.36mil from the other, he said.
Masidi added that the two companies have also started paying their current taxes.
He said another company only agreed to pay up following a court decision that was made on Thursday (Dec 1) morning.
On a supplementary question from Tungku assemblyman Assafal Alian on why there were delays in these tax payments, he said there were legal conflicts that the companies had disputed.
“However, after discussions and explanations as well as standing firm on the point that the state would not hesitate to take legal action for the failure to pay up these sales tax, we managed to get the payments coming,” Masidi said.
He said he did not wish to dwell on the past and wants to move forward from this, as the companies involved were also partners in helping the state develop economically.
