Customs Department collects RM42 bil in GST last year
SUZALINA HALID
New Straits Times13 January 2018
SINTOK: The Customs Department has achieved its RM42 billion Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection target last year.
Its director-general Datuk Seri Subromaniam Tholasy said last year's collection surpassed the RM41 billion collected in 2016.
Declined to elaborate further, he said the full details will be announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak soon.
"All I can say is that we have achieved the target of collecting RM42 billion throughout 2017.
"The details will be announced by the PM," he said after presenting scrolls to graduates of
Executive Diploma in Business Management at Universiti Utara Malaysia here today.
In September, Subromaniam was reported as saying that the department expected to exceed the RM42 billion collection from the consumption tax.
The Customs Department said it can achieve the target of an additional RM2 billion in GST revenue in 2018 based on the projected increase in consumption, coupled with its strategies to ensure compliance.
He was also reported as saying that the department has set its GST collection to increase to RM43 billion for this year, based on the positive outlook on the country's gross domestic product (GDP) which would spur consumption.
Meanwhile, on the deferment of the proposed corporatisation of Customs, Subromaniam said further studies on the matter was still ongoing.
He said the department would be visiting several developed nations to learn about their experience in corporatising the Customs Department.
"We are studying the experiences of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and Singapore in corporatising their Customs.
"There is no decision yet as we are still carrying out the study and are not in a hurry," he said.
In September, Treasury Secretary-General Tan Sri Dr Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah had announced that the proposed corporatisation, which slated to take place this month, has been deferred indefinitely.
The department’s corporatisation was announced in last March by Najib as a reward for its impressive feat of implementing the GST system.Translated from Berita Harian
