PUTRAJAYA has refunded RM7.9 billion to taxpayers in first two months of the year, said Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.

“RM4 billion was refunded to companies for GST (goods and services tax) refunds and RM3.9 billion was refunded to income taxpayers,” Lim said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

“The GST refunds were paid to 54,603 companies while the income tax refunds were paid to 38,104 companies and 37,672 taxpayers.

“The GST refunds were paid out by the Royal Customs Department while the tax refunds were paid by the Inland Revenue Board.”

Lim, who is also Bagan MP, was responding to Tajuddin Abdul Rahman’s (Pasir Salak-BN) question on the amount of GST claims the government had yet to refund.

“The amount of income tax (up to six years) and GST monies (three years), amounting to RM37 billion, that had not been refunded was due to the failure of the previous government,” said Lim.

He said the money used to refund taxpayers came from Petronas dividends.

“This shows that we did not divert the Petronas dividends towards other activities,” said Lim.

Lim said Petronas had paid the government a special dividend of RM8 billion between January and February. 

Petronas was asked to pay a special dividend of RM30 billion to the government this year so that it could refund monies owing to taxpayers.

After Pakatan Harapan seized federal power last year, Lim had revealed that RM18 billion in GST refunds had gone missing.

“Until March 4, the amount of GST refunds that have not been paid back was RM22.145 billion, involving 298,457 companies.”

During the question-and-answer session, Lim said that Petronas and its subsidiaries also had GST refunds owing. 

“The amount owing to them is RM4.2 billion.” – March 21, 2019.