THE Customs Department has identified more than 5,000 companies which are guilty of fraudulent payments of the goods and services tax (GST) since it was implemented on April 1, 2015.

Director-general of Customs T. Subromaniam said the department had  opened investigation papers against the companies, and some were being charged in group.

“These (charged in court) are the hardcore ones who are not lacking in understanding of GST, because such people (those who don’t understand), we don’t charge in court. These hardcore companies have collected GST but don’t pay up and also cheat,” he told reporters after the 1Malaysia Customs Charity Cycling (KAK1M) event in Putrajaya today.

He said the department would continue to educate GST-registered companies tthrough a customer-friendly strategy of ‘compliance through education’ rather than enforcement and punitive actions.

“In order to reduce fraud, we have also introduced the GST Ambassador programme. Initially, many companies did not understand it, that’s why we’ve taken a more friendly approach.”

Subromaniam said, as of December 31 last year, 465,000 companies were GST-registered, more than double the target of 200,000 companies.

He said the GST collection target this year was RM43 billion, RM1 billion more than last year.

“However, we believe we can achieve more than that. Last year, we reached the government’s target of RM42 billion; the actual figure will be announced by Prime Minister Najib Razak on January 24,” he said.

On KAK1M, Subromaniam said the event, held simultaneously nationwide, was aimed at promoting a healthy lifestyle and providing the public with the opportunity to interact with the Customs Department.

The department donated RM100,000 raised from the event to the Down’s Syndrome Association of Malaysia. – Bernama, January 20, 2018.