KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 — The RM5.4 billion increase in last year’s tax revenue from non-petroleum sources is proof the Pakatan Harapan (PH) federal government has sound governance policies, the finance minister said today.
Lim Guan Eng was responding to critics who accused him of trying to claim credit for the rise in the 2018 revenue from taxes.
“Yes petroleum tax did increase... but 40 per cent of the collection came from other sources,” Lim told reporters here.
“Petroleum tax rose to RM8.3 billion, but tax from other sources also rose to RM5.4 billion... that means there is still an increase even if, say, petrol price did not go up,” he added.
The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) chalked up a direct tax collection of RM137.035 billion last year, Lim announced yesterday. He claimed it was the largest sum to date.
Lim said the success was due to “the effectiveness of a clean leadership and an administration based on the principles of Competency, Accountability and Transparency (CAT)”.
He maintained today that PH's policies led to improvement in the collection system, despite Barisan Nasional lawmakers' claim that the revenue boost mostly came from increased petroleum tax.
“When we announce something we based it on facts and figures,” Lim retorted.
Direct taxes collected in 2018 increased by 11.13 per cent or RM13.723 billion compared to the amount collected in 2017, creating a new record in direct tax collection, at the same time, outperforming the record set in 2014, which was RM133.700 billion.
Tax revenue from petroleum registered at RM20.082 billion or 14.66 per cent of total collection, stamp duty collection at RM5.934 billion or 4.33 per cent and withholding tax collection at RM3.117 billion or 2.27 per cent.
Collection from the Real Property Gains Tax (RPGT) was RM1.467 billion or 1.07 per cent, cooperatives tax collection was RM0.171 billion or 0.12 per cent and the Labuan International Offshore Financial Centre (IOFC) and other taxes stood at RM0.163 billion or 0.12 per cent.
