KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — The Parliament Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has dismissed a news report that said the previous Barisan Nasional (BN) government used refunds from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) to cover a shortfall.
Its chairman Datuk Noraini Ahmad said the report was inaccurate and confusing as the subject matter was not discussed or decided by the committee, which had met over 11 months ago.
“I am disappointed with the report titled ‘BN used GST refunds to cover shortfalls, panels finds’ that was published on The Malaysian Insight today.
“The media report had also picked up information from the PAC report and had not respected the confidentiality of the report,” she said in a statement today.
Noraini further said that the report is still classified as confidential until it is tabled in Dewan Rakyat next Tuesday.
The Parit Sulong MP had urged the media to be patient until the PAC report on the RM19.4 billion GST refunds has been disclosed.
Earlier today, The Malaysian Insight reported that the former BN administration had used money due to taxpayers for GST refunds to pay for other expenses due to a shortfall in its income.
Citing an unnamed source, the report stated that the PAC found that BN had overestimated its income and used the money from the GST refunds account.
