Najib Razak says he allowed GST revenues to be channelled to the Consolidated Revenue Account for the use of cash flow management.
PETALING JAYA: Former prime minister Najib Razak said his administration did no wrong in the issue of goods and services tax (GST) refunds since the law allows for the money to be channelled directly into the government’s Consolidated Revenue Account.
Previously, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had accused the Barisan Nasional administration of misusing RM19.4 billion meant for GST refunds, but the Public Accounts Committee today confirmed that no GST refund money had gone missing.
The PAC noted, however, that there had been a violation of the Goods and Services Tax Act 2014 when the funds were transferred into the Consolidated Revenue Account instead of the GST Refund Account as stated under Section 54(2) of the act.
But in a Facebook post, Najib said the same law allowed the government to also choose to deposit the GST refunds into the consolidated fund.
He said Section 54(5) states “Notwithstanding subsection (2) and the provisions of the Financial Procedure Act 1957, the Minister may authorise the payment into the Consolidated Revenue Account in the Federal Consolidated Fund of all or part of the moneys of the Fund”.
“So, I allowed GST revenues to be channelled to the Consolidated Revenue Account upon the advice of civil servants for the use of cash flow management.
“This is also the case with Singapore’s GST Act where all GST revenue is channelled into the Consolidated Revenue Account before being refunded,” he said.
He said paying out GST refunds needed time because there were many claims which needed to be verified first since there were those which did not meet the requirements or were false claims.
This, he said, was confirmed by the PAC report which noted that only RM1.45 billion was approved to be refunded as of June 5 last year.
Najib, who was also the finance minister, noted that the PH-led government only paid back RM3 billion of the RM19.4 billion Lim claimed had been robbed by the previous administration, and this meant it was untrue that all RM19.4 billion deserved to be refunded.
The Pekan MP also noted that the PAC report had not recommended the government take any legal or criminal action in this matter.
“Now we will see if the PH-led government will take any action against Lim,” he said.
Opposition leader Ismail Sabri Yaakob today asked for Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng to be referred to Parliament’s Rights and Privileges Committee for misleading the house over the issue of the goods and services tax (GST) refunds.
“Yang Berhormat Bagan (Lim) claimed that RM19.4 billion was stolen by the previous administration but the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) statement today has made clear that there was no robbery or missing funds as accused by Bagan,” the Bera MP said.
However, Deputy Speaker Nga Kor Ming told him to write to the Dewan Rakyat speaker for his consideration on the matter.
He said the PAC report had only been tabled today.
Presumably Guan Eng cannot be sued for Kerbau-ing in Parliament but surely he can be censured with a RM1 deduction from his paycheck, as an indictment of his recklessness.
Treasury sec-gen: I do not think the RM19.4b was stolen
PAC REPORT | The Treasury secretary-general Ahmad Badri Mohd Zahir (above) told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) he does not believe the RM19.4 billion in supposed delayed GST refunds were stolen.
“My personal opinion, I don’t think it is stolen. It is there, the money is there.
“It’s just that the procedure, how the process was actually done (that is in question).
“No way… this current juncture that the money will suddenly (be) stolen, misused or whatever it is.
“Just that probably, as I mentioned, that we are managing the cashflow. I don’t think (the money) is lost anywhere, even a single sen,” Ahmad Badri said.
He said this in his witness testimony to the PAC on October 16, 2018, in response to a question from Subang MP Wong Chen (above), who had asked whether he believed the RM19.4 billion had been stolen or misused.
Previously, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng had claimed in Parliament that RM19.47 billion meant for GST refunds had been “robbed” (rompak). He claimed this was done by placing the money meant for the refunds into a consolidated fund as revenue, instead of a trust fund.
“Because it was taken as revenue, it was used by the former government,” Lim had claimed in the Dewan Rakyat in August last year.
However, Ahmad Badri, who was appointed as the Treasury secretary-general last September, said the gross revenue from GST would all be placed in the consolidated funds first, and then the money meant for the refunds would be transferred to the trust fund.
Hence, he said, what is left in the consolidated fund would be the net revenue from GST.
When asked on what basis he thinks Lim made such a statement regarding the RM19.4 billion, he said perhaps Lim was looking in terms of the amount of refunds they were supposed to pay.
“I am not sure (why). Maybe he was looking at the refund that we are supposed to pay.
“This is because the finance minister, he is active, because as an accountant, he likes to see,” Ahmad Badri said.
He also said there is sufficient revenue from the GST collection left over to pay off the RM19.4 billion in supposedly delayed GST refunds.
However, he pointed out that the RM19.4 billion refund claims still need to be audited before the ministry takes any action in initiating the refund process.
Between Guanee who does not have a swimming pool at home and flies economy class on Air Asia and a person who swiped 4B of pensioners money from KWAP, I will believe Guanee.
The Ministry of Finance, probably acting on the instructions of the then Minister of Finance Najib Razak was guilty of Acccounting misconduct.
The GST system to be sustained required the Input GST paid by businesses to be refunded as a matter of course, not as some kind of privilege or favour. That is how GST is done in Australia, for example.
With GST Najib, Kastam at the time was clearly deliberately delaying or refusing to refund Input GST. Businesses who submitted a claim were intimated by automatically triggering an intrusive GST audit. Now we know why.
Even a junior accountant on his first job would know that you have to align Assets with related Liabilities. The related portion of Assets (GST collections) had to be reserved against Liabilities (GST refunds). Lim Guan Eng was very, very angry when he found that the Account was empty. To refund Input GST, the MOF was forced to transfer funds from other accounts earmarked for other expenditure purposes. Technically , the money was not stolen (hopefully not) but it was improperly , probably illegally diverted.
That is Accounting Misconduct, and most likely Financial laws were broken.
Lim Guan Eng may have used (understandably) over-colourful language, but he did no wrong to expose the issue.
U r teaching these business dwarves about the important of cash flow to sustain a business!
Can they understand/care?
Just think what a supposedly qualified Treasury sec-gen is acting like lalang! Any wonder how bolihland sent to the dog (the new favourite pet of that 白眼狼, after his petrified pet cat can't be resurrected!).
Wakakakaka… accountant playing number acrobat definitely means super bad news!
Phew, what a relief to know there was No Robbery or theft of about RM 20 billions of GST Tax monies collected and the controversy came about because some idiotic assholes in the Finance Ministry credited it to a wrong account which is also not wrong. And it was all done according to the Constitution and Financial Laws enacted.
Is that really how any Nation's finances are managed around the world by their Finance Minister and their Ministry?
Malaysians must thank LGE for Crying Wolf Wolf, otherwise most of us would be blind to know how the Nation's finances are actually being managed and handled.
So, what about the Income Tax Refunds amounting to about another RM 17 billions? Again wrongly credited into the wrong account to be refunded?
Aren't those 2 issues almost the same?
And what about all those lost monies cases of 1MDB, SRC, KWAP, EPF, Felda, Tabung Haji etc? Were all those monies also wrongly credited in Ahjibkor, Jho Low, Kojadi, Political parties, NGOs etc accounts, and is still all there waiting to be credited back into the correct and rightful accounts?
Don't worry, Malaysians are just all too dumb to understand all these financial irregularities and just happy to know No monies was lost or stolen.
Between Guanee who does not have a swimming pool at home and flies economy class on Air Asia and a person who swiped 4B of pensioners money from KWAP, I will believe Guanee.
ReplyDeleteeasy, ask his dad to give a new definition for the word robbed.
ReplyDeleteThe Ministry of Finance, probably acting on the instructions of the then Minister of Finance Najib Razak was guilty of Acccounting misconduct.
ReplyDeleteThe GST system to be sustained required the Input GST paid by businesses to be refunded as a matter of course, not as some kind of privilege or favour. That is how GST is done in Australia, for example.
With GST Najib, Kastam at the time was clearly deliberately delaying or refusing to refund Input GST. Businesses who submitted a claim were intimated by automatically triggering an intrusive GST audit.
Now we know why.
Even a junior accountant on his first job would know that you have to align Assets with related Liabilities.
The related portion of Assets (GST collections) had to be reserved against Liabilities (GST refunds). Lim Guan Eng was very, very angry when he found that the Account was empty. To refund Input GST, the MOF was forced to transfer funds from other accounts earmarked for other expenditure purposes. Technically , the money was not stolen (hopefully not) but it was improperly , probably illegally diverted.
That is Accounting Misconduct, and most likely Financial laws were broken.
Lim Guan Eng may have used (understandably) over-colourful language, but he did no wrong to expose the issue.
U r teaching these business dwarves about the important of cash flow to sustain a business!
DeleteCan they understand/care?
Just think what a supposedly qualified Treasury sec-gen is acting like lalang! Any wonder how bolihland sent to the dog (the new favourite pet of that 白眼狼, after his petrified pet cat can't be resurrected!).
Wakakakaka… accountant playing number acrobat definitely means super bad news!
Wakakakakakakaka
ReplyDeletePhew, what a relief to know there was No Robbery or theft of about RM 20 billions of GST Tax monies collected and the controversy came about because some idiotic assholes in the Finance Ministry credited it to a wrong account which is also not wrong. And it was all done according to the Constitution and Financial Laws enacted.
Is that really how any Nation's finances are managed around the world by their Finance Minister and their Ministry?
Malaysians must thank LGE for Crying Wolf Wolf, otherwise most of us would be blind to know how the Nation's finances are actually being managed and handled.
So, what about the Income Tax Refunds amounting to about another RM 17 billions? Again wrongly credited into the wrong account to be refunded?
Aren't those 2 issues almost the same?
And what about all those lost monies cases of 1MDB, SRC, KWAP, EPF, Felda, Tabung Haji etc? Were all those monies also wrongly credited in Ahjibkor, Jho Low, Kojadi, Political parties, NGOs etc accounts, and is still all there waiting to be credited back into the correct and rightful accounts?
Don't worry, Malaysians are just all too dumb to understand all these financial irregularities and just happy to know No monies was lost or stolen.
Wakakakakakakakakaka