KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 ― Breaching the provisions of Goods and Services Act by diverting funds meant for refunds into the Consolidated Account is further evidence of former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s deceit, said DAPSY chief Howard Lee.
He said this was demonstrated in the Public Accounts Committee report on the matter.
“The report also shows that as at 30 May 2018, there was only RM152 million or 0.78 per cent of Input claims, left in the GST Trust Account, and the total GST Input Tax claim is RM19.4 billion,” said Lee.
He said not only did Najib breach the GST Act 2014, the latter also sought to blame the matter on the “tax holiday” before the repeal of the consumption tax last year.
“This is nothing but an act of desperation, by an unrepentant criminal clutching at straws to preserve a perception of innocence, by brute force of deceit and misdirection.”
“Is this not indisputable admission by Najib’s band of bandits that, the implementation of GST was a desperate act to finance spending behaviours not dissimilar to the purported RM3.3 million a day of credit bills? Is Najib admitting that he was actually depending on future money of others to pay off his previous debts?,” said Lee in a statement today.
Pakatan Harapan officials and the Attorney General insisted that the Najib administration’s decision to enter GST revenue into the Consolidated Account rather than a trust meant for input tax refunds was unlawful.
Najib conceded that the GST Act had required revenue to be recorded in a trust account but insisted that it also authorised him as the finance minister then to divert these to “any other account”.
