The government will publish the names of tax dodgers in newspapers beginning January 1 next year, a report in the New Sunday Times newspaper said.

"I must warn all taxpayers that our computer programme has enabled us to trace those who have flouted the income tax laws. Don't hope that the department will not be able to trace them," Inland Revenue Board director-general Zainol Abidin Abdul Rashid was quoted as saying.

He said the IRB had detected 33,000 companies that had failed to submit their return forms.

Companies tracked down

In an operation conducted by the IRB between Oct 25 and 28 in the Klang Valley, which includes the capital and surrounding areas, some 1,956 companies were tracked down, he said.

It obtained RM70 million from 411 of them.

The operation to track down defaulters would resume on a nationwide scale, he said. The IRB hopes to collect RM50 billion by Dec 31.