KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Finance Ministry has started a special voluntary disclosure programme to ensure more companies involved in exporting fishery commodities and scrap metal out of the state to pay their sales tax to the state government.
The ministry’s permanent secretary cum state sales tax director Datuk Mohd Sofian Alfian Nair said the programme came in effect last Tuesday (Aug 15) and will last until end of this year.
“This is to encourage state sales tax payers for the two categories – fishery commodities taken out of Sabah, and scrap metals being taken out of Sabah – to come forward voluntarily and declare the taxes in line with the State Sales Tax Enactment 1998.
“It targets companies who have never registered their state sales tax license, those who have registered but have not declared any state sales tax, or those who have registered but did not declare their state sales tax properly for any assessment year.
“The programme is also to ensure the state revenue to be paid to the state government, could be collected in 2023,” Mohd Sofian said in a statement here.
He assured that under the initiative, the tax payers will not be penalised if they settle their taxes within the duration of the special programme.
“The period of taxes eligible for this programme are according to the date of the state sales tax enforced for these products, namely; May 1,2021 to Aug 14, 2023 for fishery commodities exported out of Sabah and Feb 1, 2022 to Aug 14, 2023 for scrap metals exported out of Sabah.
“Under this programme, the companies are allowed to declare the taxes via lump sum within 30 days from (filing) Form number 4, or in installments based on the approval of the Finance Ministry during the duration of the programme,” he added.
However, Mohd Sofian stressed that payment in installments will not be available for the taxes from Aug 15 – Dec 31, 2023 as the companies have to pay accordingly before the products are exported.
He added that further enquiries can be made at the state sales tax division at 088-368038/088-368068/088-368067 or email to dknormahani.pgmohd@sabah.gov.my or claudia.salbishte@sabah.gov.my.
