Sabah working with MACC to claim sums owed in tax evasion cases

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah government is going after taxes owed to it by companies involved in alleged evasion of crude palm oil sales tax.

 

State Finance Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun said the government is working with the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) on the matter.

 

“We have started to collect (the taxes) but I believe there are more cases; that’s why we are working hand in hand with MACC,” he told reporters after closing the Finance Ministry’s “Integrity Week” at Menara Kinabalu here yesterday.

 

But at the same time, he said, there are firms that have voluntarily settled their taxes without being prompted by the government.

 

“Letters of demand by the Finance Ministry have been issued but, as I said, in some cases the companies ended paying up willingly.

 

“We actually have a voluntary scheme whereby if you pay between now and the end of this year, there will be no penalty,” Masidi added.

 

In one of the tax evasion cases, a former public servant with a Datuk title was arrested over alleged evasion of millions of ringgit in Sabah’s crude palm oil sales tax in May last year.

 

The arrest of the 66-year-old suspect on May 20, 2022, followed the detention of two state government officials including a retiree.

 

On May 18, 2022, a senior official with the state Finance Ministry and a retired senior government officer were arrested in connection with the case.

 

They were believed to have received RM700,000 in bribes from a palm oil mill in Lahad Datu to “overlook” the mill’s falsification of the quantity of crude palm oil produced to evade state taxes worth about RM2mil a month since 2015.

 

On the issue of whether a RM320.25mil fund promised by Putrajaya to resolve Sabah’s water supply problem is a grant or soft loan, Masidi said he was told it is an “interest-free loan”.

 

“I hope it will be at 0% interest but over time, I also hope the Federal Government will convert it into a grant,” said the state Finance Minister.

 

Deputy Chief Minister III Datuk Shahelmey Yahya told the state assembly on Aug 8 that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had hinted that the funds would be a soft loan and “maybe at zero interest”.

 

After a meeting with Anwar on June 1, Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said in a statement he was confident the Federal Government’s RM320.25mil aid to Sabah will expedite its short-term plans to solve the state’s water woes.

 

On the Sabah Special Trust Fund to place unused federal funds that were approved by the state assembly last week, Masidi acknowledged that such funds could only be deposited into it following an agreement by Putrajaya.

 

“As I said in the state assembly, it has not been finalised because we need the concurrence of the Federal Government.

 

“We have tabled the relevant enactment and it has been approved for the purpose of conveying the message to the Federal Government that we are ready to implement it, whenever they are wiling to do it,” he said.

 

Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli had during a visit to Sabah on June 27 said Sabah’s trust fund proposal merit a detailed study by the Finance Ministry as it did not involve merely financial aspects but also the effects the move could bring to the federal project system.

 

The state assembly unanimously approved the establishment of the Sabah Special Trust Fund as a vehicle to place annual federal development funds that could be withdrawn if unused on Aug 9.

 

 

Source: The Star