REFUNDS for income tax and goods and services tax (GST) to businesses that have been delayed by the previous government are helping to stimulate economic growth, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said today.

“We have already started to disburse refunds of GST and income tax amounting to RM37 billion, where we will do the payouts for these 10 months,

“There are those who have not gotten their refunds for the last two to three years and are only getting the payments after the change of government. This is expected to stimulate the economy,” Lim, who is also DAP secretary-general, said after a Chinese New Year celebration at the Malaysia-China Chamber of Commerce in Kuala Lumpur today.

Putrajaya expects to resolve outstanding GST refunds owed to businesses that were not returned since 2015 under the previous government.

Refunds have been disbursed starting January and should be completed by October.

The Finance Ministry discovered some RM19.4 billion in GST refunds owed to businesses after Pakatan Harapan took over the federal government last year.

Lim said the economy is expected to improve in 2019 based on trends in 2018 that showed growth.

“When we look at the third quarter last year, growth was at 4.4% and in the fourth quarter, growth was 4.7%,” he said. – February 16, 2019.