THE Ministry of Finance will settle RM4.8 billion in outstanding goods and services tax (GST) refunds by year-end, Deputy Finance Minister II Shahar Abdullah told the Dewan Rakyat today.

Delays have been due to submission of invalid bank details by some registrants and failure of registrants to respond or to provide the correct documents, he said during Question Time, after a question by Amiruddin Haji Hamzah (Kubang Pasu-Independent) on whether deferred GST refunds have been repaid and what was slowing down the process.

Shahar said that between June 22 and July 8, RM1.49 billion had approved for the refunds.

To expedite the process, the ministry and the Customs Department have embarked on a “pay first, audit later” process for eligible firms, he said.

He also said that under the act, Section 8 allowed refunds to be completed in six years.

There are two categories of registrants: one for claims of less than RM100,000 and the other greater than RM100,000.

To a supplementary question by Ahmad Maslan (Pontian-BN), Shahar said the RM19.4 billion GST refund, which the Pakatan Harapan government said had been stolen by the Barisan Nasional administration, was not missing and had been spent on development.

“We refer to the report by the Public Accounts Committee on July 15,2019, that the GST funds were not stolen.

“The money was used for development expenditure. The Finance Ministry and Customs is updating the collection and refund process as recommended by the PAC in its report on July 15,” Shahar said.

The deputy minister also said that claims have increased by RM9 billion.

Ahmad had asked for a ministerial statement by previous finance minister Lim Guan Eng, who alleged the RM19.4billion had been “stolen” by BN.

Ahmad also asked Deputy Speaker Azalina Othman, who was presiding over the session, whether action will be taken against Lim (Bagan-PH) for lying to the House.

Meanwhile, Shahar said collection of sales and service tax (SST) for 2019 was RM27.6 billion, compared to the GST collection of RM41.2 billion in 2016 and RM44.3 billion in 2018.

Mohd Salim Sharif(Jempol-BN) had asked a supplementary question on the collection of SST for 2019 and whether prices of goods have gone down following its implementation by the PH government. – August 3, 2020.