Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on July 12, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: Accusations against Barisan Nasional (BN) for spending goods and services tax (GST) refunds to cover the then government’s income shortfall is inaccurate, Parliament Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Datuk Dr Noraini Ahmad (pic) said.

In a statement yesterday, Noraini (BN-Parit Sulong) said the media report on such allegations was not only inaccurate but also confusing as it did not give a true picture of what the PAC concluded after 11 months of probe.

“At the same time, the media expose on the PAC report shows disrespect towards the confidentiality of the committee’s report, which remains classified until it is tabled in Dewan Rakyat next Tuesday to be a public document,” she said.

As such, Noraini urged the media to be patient and wait for the report to be tabled before reporting on the matter.

Earlier yesterday, The Malaysian Insight reported, quoting sources, that the PAC found that the previous BN government had used money due to taxpayers for GST refunds to pay for other expenses because of a shortfall in its income.

It wrote that the BN had overestimated its income and so dipped into the GST refunds account, and that the money was not stolen or robbed as claimed by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng when he revealed the missing funds in Parliament last August.

“The customs department was expected to contribute a certain amount to the Treasury but when it was insufficient, the previous government used the refunds for its own expenditure,” the news portal quoted a source as saying. “Taxpayers were literally forced to lend the money to the government.”

The PAC was tasked to look into the matter after Guan Eng’s revelation that only RM1.486 billion remained in the account dedicated to GST refunds, which was not enough to cover the RM19.4 billion the government was supposed to return to taxpayers at the time.

Meanwhile, former youth and sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin (BN-Rembau) said if the PAC report does show that the GST refunds were not stolen, he would table a motion in Dewan Rakyat to refer Guan Eng to Parliament’s Committee of Privileges (CoP), as the latter has misled the House and made wicked accusations against the previous administration.

“Given that the allegation of ‘robbery’ was made when the finance minister and myself were debating during the abolition of the GST and the reintroduction of the sales and services tax, and I have also lodged a police report on this matter, it is the rationale for me to table a motion and propose to Dewan Rakyat to take action upon the allegations and confusion created by the finance minister,” Khairy posted on his Facebook page.

The CoP comprises the speaker as chairman and six members nominated by the committee of selection. The CoP’s duty is to consider any matters submitted to it and issue a statement regarding the matter to the House.

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