Pay traders interest plus GST refund, PKR tells Putrajaya

Some businesses are suffering cash-flow problems because of the delay in GST refunds. – The Malaysian Insider file pic, October 20, 2015.

The government should pay interest on top of the amount of goods and services tax (GST) refund that it owes some businesses, PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli said today.

The Finance Ministry said yesterday that only 41% of GST refund had been handed to businesses, but a large chunk of refund applications were delayed.

Rafizi said today the excuse of GST being a new system did not work any longer as GST has been implemented for more than six months now.

He said some businesses were suffering cash-flow problems because of the delay in refunds.

“They should sort out the problem first – be it manpower of the system – until then, stop GST,” he said during a press conference at the Parliament lobby today.

"The failure to refund GST to traders in the promised timeline is a huge deficiency that cannot be taken lightly," Rafizi said.

Excuses by the ministry that traders have not completed proper documentation were not valid.

"That just goes to show that there was not enough training for the traders before GST was implemented.

"These are just excuses. They should not have started GST on April 1 without being fully prepared," he said.

It was unfair, Rafizi added, that the public and traders were to pay the tax on the spot while the government delayed in making refunds.

- TMI