PUTRAJAYA, Dec 2 — The Royal Malaysian Customs Department has settled the Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund claims amounting to RM4.006 billion, involving 40,280 claims to 27,426 companies for the period between June 22 and November 30 this year.

Its director-general Datuk Seri Abdul Latif Abdul Kadir said there were 82,517 GST refund claims amounting to RM1.316 billion by 48,225 companies that could not be processed.

He said among the problems faced by the department to process the claims was because the claimant failed to provide feedback to submit the required documents and submitted invalid bank information.

"This happened because the claimants did not update their company registration information such as business address, telephone number and email in the MyGST system which resulted in notices or information not reaching them," he told a press conference here today.

He advised companies that had yet to receive their GST refund claims to update their registration information and bank information in the Taxpayer Access Point (TAP), MyGST.

They can also contact the department through email to refundgst@customs.gov.my, he said.

On June 15 this year, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz said the GST refund would be made from June 22, 2020, and payment to all claimants was expected to be completed by December 2020 at the latest.

To a question whether there were false claims, Abdul Latif said the department would have to conduct an investigation and audit first before classifying a claim as false.

"We cannot simply say there are companies making false GST claims. An audit needs to be done, and if there is a basis, we will take action for cheating the government,” he added.

In another development, Abdul Latif said the two-day 94th Malaysian Customs Directors Meeting (MPPKSM) was held online starting today to meet the standard operating procedures (SOP) set by the National Security Council to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

"The main purpose of this meeting is to discuss the department's policies as well as to discuss the level of monitoring on actions that have been carried out based on the policies introduced,” he added. — Bernama