PUTRAJAYA: The Customs Department has started refund payment for Goods and Services Tax (GST), beginning January.
Its director-general Datuk Seri Subromaniam Tholasy said today most of the claims submitted to the department had gone through the vetting process and refund payments would be done in stages until the end of the year.
To ensure revenue security, Subromaniam said, the department would implement retention sum or bank guarantee (BG) as an option for GSTregistered companies, adding the BG would be carried out at the minimum rate of 30 per cent out of the amount claimed by the companies.
The mechanism for the GST refund payment would involve three methods, he said.
“For claims amounting less than RM50,000, the table auditing has been completed and payments have begun. The number of claims in this category is more than 80 per cent of the applications received for GST refunds,” he said in a statement.
Subromaniam said for claims worth between RM50,000 and RM100,000, 80 per cent of the refunds would be paid and the retention sum of 20 per cent would only be released once the site visit or the audit sampling had been completed, tentatively within one year.
For claims over RM100,000, the director-general said, 70 per cent of the payment would be made with site auditing to be carried out via risk management and the retention fund or BG would be imposed at the minimum rate of 30 per cent.
“Companies in this category will only have to shoulder the cost of 0.9 per cent – 1.5 per cent of which they will be given the option to replace the BG method to the retention sum method.
“With this approach, companies will get 70 per cent of their refunds. The remaining 30 per cent will be retained, which will only be released after visitation or site auditing has been completed within two years,” he added.
Subromaniam also expressed his hope that companies which had applied for the GST refunds would have better understanding of the processes involved based on the explanation given.
