The Finance Ministry has been urged to find a swift solution regarding the Goods and Goods and Services Tax (GST) refunds before the implementation of Sales and Services Tax (SST) this September.

“The failure to refund the input tax has caused losses to businesses in the form of ‘cost of capital’ because their cash flows have been affected. A lot of businesses had to raise prices because of this, and some had to totally shut down,” said Kota Melaka MP Khoo Poay Tiong in a statement today.

Some businesses have been waiting for more than two years now for the refund and the failure to refund the input tax can be considered a breach of trust by the former government, he said.

Khoo said this in response to the statement by Customs Department director-general T Subromaniam on the shortfall of RM19.4 billion in the trust fund to pay the GST arrears.

The MP also called on former Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar to explain on the shortfall and urged the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and Attorney General's Chambers to conduct immediate investigation.

- Bernama