Income tax officers are going house-to-house in an effort to track down thousands of tax cheats despite an uproar over the "embarrassing" tactic, local media reported today.

Newspaper photographers were on hand to record the six-hour operation but were told not to take close-up pictures of the alleged tax-evaders.

"We are not here to shame them," local Inland Revenue Board director Samsuri Jelani told The Star .

Different interpretation

But when the operation was first announced last week, the IRB's chief executive Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid had a different interpretation of the tactic.

"We will go door-to-door even on Sundays. This can be an embarrassment to them. Let their neighbours laugh at them," he was quoted as saying.

His remarks prompted outrage, with some newspaper readers and parliamentarians suggesting the taxmen would be seen as thugs using the same tactics as the notorious loan sharks.

The IRB then took a softer line, with Samsuri saying: "We are not out to hunt people but to deliver the forms and notices to individuals."

Those targetted have been given 30 days to submit their tax returns or face a fine of up to RM2,000 or a maximum six months' jail, or both, Samsuri said.

"More than 20 percent of the 230,000 individual taxpayers under our jurisdiction failed to declare their incomes," he said.

"Our records also revealed that some of them failed to do so over the last three years which amounted to millions of ringgit." - AFP