THE Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has concluded its probe into the RM19.4 billion goods and services tax (GST) refunds owed by the previous government to businesses nationwide.

PAC chairman Ronald Kiandee said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng was called up today as the last of seven witnesses sought to give their input.

Among the other witnesses was former prime minister Najib Razak, who also held the finance portfolio.

Kiandee said the committee will hold a post-mortem meeting before tabling its report in Parliament by the end of this year or early 2019.

“We will hold another meeting to prepare a final report before tabling it in Parliament,” he told reporters at the Parliament lobby.

The Beluran MP said he does not want to jump the gun by drawing a conclusion on the missing refunds now, and that all parties should wait for the report.

“We have to sit down and study the details, based on the evidence and documents given to us since last month.”

Lim, meanwhile, said PAC is of the impression that the refunds are still in the Finance Ministry’s coffers.

The Bagan MP said he gave a detailed explanation to the committee.

“I think PAC understands the explanation given. They were under a false impression, which I was quite surprised about.

“We will get to the bottom of this. (They believe) the RM19.4 billion is still there, and we told them it is not there, and I think it is clear that it is not there.”

In August, Lim told Parliament that there is a shortfall in the GST refunds accounts.

The DAP secretary-general had said the money “had been robbed by the previous administration”.

Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin and former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah have lodged a report with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission on the matter.

In a statement later, Lim said 121,429 companies and individuals have yet to receive their refunds since 2015. – November 14, 2018.