PETALING JAYA, Jan 28 – To gain experience on the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in selected countries, customs department officers will be sent there, beginning March. Director-general Datuk Seri Khazali Ahmad said the countries included the United Kingdom, Australia and South Africa.
“They will be there for about two weeks. We want to learn on the ways through which fraud can occur, from those who have had long experience in implementing the tax system. We are only 10 months old, we are like toddlers (compared to the other countries). However, we are very grateful. Even though it is new for us, we have implemented it well, so far,” he said.
Khazali was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 34th World Customs Day celebration launched by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak here Thursday. In another development, he said the Customs Department was working to upgrade its information system to go online by Jan 1, next year.
With this new system, all declarations, tax assessments, everything will be centralised, he said there will be no human intervention. He added that they can make the declaration anywhere, but the valuation will be done centrally. On the perception that the GST caused prices to rise, Khazali dismissed it as untrue, and slammed unethical traders who were believed to be among the causes of the price hikes.
“Don’t we remember, when oil prices rose (previously), ‘teh tarik’ went up 10 sen a cup, but why when the oil prices have fallen now, the price does not go down by 10 sen? This is the question we have to play up, to instill strong ethics among the business people. If they are unethical, they will simply look to increase their profit, which will in turn burden the people. Do not blame the government if the prices increase due to (the practices of) those who are unethical in business,” he said.
