KUALA LUMPUR: Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng has apologised to the Dewan Rakyat for misreporting the amount left in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Refund Fund.
Today, he conceded that the actual amount left in the fund was RM148.6 million and not RM1,486 million (RM1.48 billion) as he had announced in Parliament last week.
He said this meant that the shortfall was actually much higher than previously reported.
“The total shortage of monies in the GST Refund Fund is RM19,248 million (RM19.24 billion) and not RM17,911 million (RM17.91 billion), ” Lim said and thanked the Dewan Rakyat for giving him the opportunity to give the correct figure.
He said the mistake was made by his officer.
“I wish to apologise to the Speaker over this mistake. It is better that we be transparent, honest and straighforward with the Dewan rather than conceal matters like this by the past government.
“The (GST) refund arrears were caused by weakness in government cash flow due to lack of fiscal discipline, widespread wastage and large increase in debts.
“What was done by the past administration was account falsification and misappropriation of tax refund arrears for other uses or to close the deficit to show that they had a surplus.”
Lim confirmed that Customs Department records showed that the total arrears in refunds for GST tax input claims exceeding two weeks were RM19.2 billion as of May 31.
From the total arrears, RM9.2 billion was for this year, RM6.8 billion last year, RM2.8 billion in 2016 and RM600 million in 2015.