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Opposition leader bids to cite Guan Eng for ‘misleading’ Parliament on GST refunds

Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is seen arriving at the the 14th Penang State Assembly session at Dewan Sri Pinang in George Town April 30, 2019. ― Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng is seen arriving at the the 14th Penang State Assembly session at Dewan Sri Pinang in George Town April 30, 2019. ― Picture by Sayuti Zainudin

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 — Federal Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob sought to refer Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng to the Rights and Privileges Committee today for allegedly misleading Parliament with his claim that RM19 billion in tax refunds were stolen.

Ismail cited the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigation report into the matter that was tabled today, which concluded that the Barisan Nasional government had not “robbed” the public of the money as Lim alleged in July last year.

“With this, the Bagan MP has confused the Dewan Rakyat and the Opposition wants to use Standing Order 36(12) to refer the Bagan MP to the Rights and Privileges Committee,” Ismail said.

The PAC concluded that the shortfall was due to an overestimation of net GST receipts by about 65 per cent under the BN administration.

in his reply, Deputy Speaker Nga Kor Ming, who chaired the meeting, asked Ismail to submit a letter to the Dewan Rakyat Speaker, justifying reasons as to why Lim should be referred to the said Committee.

The Opposition members, however, argued their way as to why Lim must be immediately referred to the Rights and Privileges Committee, instead of submitting a letter seeking the move.

“There are two ways to refer a member of this committee. One, via writing, another can be decided by the Speaker. Since this is a time-sensitive issue, though the speech was made a few months back in August, the report tabled today confirms that the statement made by the finance minister is not true and not accurate.

“It has given a terrible impression of the previous government. This is an urgent matter which must be hastened by this Dewan Rakyat. If you ask us to send a letter and all, definitely it is only going to be discussed in the next meeting,” Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin said.

Nga then said it is only fair for all to have the Opposition write in first, adding that the PAC report was only released this morning, and he too had not had a chance to read it.

Ayer Hitam MP Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong then questioned if there would be an assurance that the motion is debated and decided in this meeting, instead of being postponed.

“If that can be discussed, I feel it is much fairer for all because the accusation that was made, was that (the GST refund was) robbed, and now the conclusion here, is that nothing went missing,” Wee argued.

Jelutong MP RSN Rayer then told Wee to read the full report, which he said contained a note by the attorney general, saying there was a criminal breach of trust in the handling of the refunds.

Nga was, however, firm on his decision and called for order in the Lower House, after which the meeting continued.

In her statement today, Noraini said that there was no loss of funds from GST revenue collections, and that the revenue was not transferred to the GST refund pool was used to fund management and development expenses.

“The government previously overestimated the net GST collections by 65 per cent,” she said.

However, she said the PAC found that the previous government did not abide by the legal provisions to allocate the refund payments into the appropriate account.

Instead, it entered the funds into the Consolidated Account and only transferred these to the refund pool as and when needed.

“This is inconsistent with the provisions in Section 54(2) and 54(5) of the GST Act 2014,” she added.

The PAC also found that the previous government failed to transfer adequate funds to the GST refund pool and only returned 35 per cent of annual revenue when it should have set aside 42 per cent, she said.

Noraini further said the delay in transferring the funds to the GST refund pool was to prevent the government’s accounts from going into deficit.

The PAC is recommending that the government abide by its prescribed laws in its financial affairs.

It also advised all officers entrusted with the administration of federal financial matters to advise the government on all laws, procedures and accounting details without fear or favour.

The PAC investigated the matter over 11 months beginning from August 2019.

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