KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Finance Ministry is taking measures to improve its tax collection system to ensure the state is paid what is due to it.
Minister Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun (pic) said this included taking on more staff and working with other agencies to collect taxes.
As of now, he said, they were waiting to upgrade the tax collection unit to a department under the ministry.
“First of all, (we have to) get our house in order,” he said during question time at the state assembly sitting here on Wednesday (May 24).
“The number of staff tasked with the collection of a billion ringgit of taxes is not a lot, so our first step is to increase this,” he added.
He was replying to a supplementary question by Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal (Warisan-Senallang) who had asked about the state’s plans to push palm oil companies to give back more to the community.
Another effort to improve the state’s tax revenue base from the palm oil industry, Masidi said, was working with agencies like the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
He said many big oil palm estates in Sabah were owned by companies listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.
“But what are they paying us? The income tax is declared and paid in Kuala Lumpur so we can’t do anything,” he said.
Hence the cooperation with MPOB and MACC, he pointed out, with the ministry issuing five notices of assessment involving some RM53.36mil to companies said to have under-declared their tax returns.
“So far, only RM4mil of these taxes have been paid. But we have a scheme to allow those who ‘mistakenly’ under-declared to pay their dues,” he said.
Masidi said in certain cases, companies have sent conflicting tax figures to MPOB and the ministry.
“We will check with the MPOB (to see) if the amount tallies. If we still have concerns, then we will ask the MACC to come in and investigate.
“Rest assured, the Finance Ministry will work with other agencies to collect all the taxes due to the state,” he said.
Datuk Darell Leiking (Warisan-Moyog) later suggested that the state also checks on taxes as well as royalty payments by companies in Sabah, saying it had lost a lot of revenue because of manipulation.
