KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 5 — The Ministry of Finance has urged businesses whose Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund claims have been rejected to appeal as soon as possible at the main branch of the Royal Malaysian Customs Department.

Deputy Minister Datuk Chua Tee Yong said the refund from an appeal does not have to abide by the 14-day refund guideline for normal claims but would depend on the complexity of the case and how fast the company could provide the information needed by Customs.

“It is best to go to the main branches of the Customs office as this would facilitate them in terms of what information was not provided,” he told Bernama in an interview today.

Chua estimated that around RM400 million in input tax claims have been rejected since the GST was implemented on April 1 due to several factors, including incomplete information and documentation and invalid input tax claims or blocked input tax.

“All these can be appealed except for those with blocked input tax,” he said.

He said rejected claims are generally caused by the failure of businesses to respond to a Customs email pertaining to an error in their claims submission, although businesses are unlikely to be penalised for this as the new tax structure is still in its initial implementation stage.

“Now is about what you could call the inform enforcement rather than punishment stage.

“Those who are rejected will not be penalised at the moment, but if it continues, then we will have to look into it,” he said.  — Bernama