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CYBERJAYA – The Inland Revenue Board (IRB) has detected tax evasion involving an estimated sum of RM200 million by cooking oil companies who received cooking oil subsidies.
Its chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Nizom Sairi said IRB conducted a three-day subsidised cooking oil operation codenamed “Op Saji”, beginning Monday, with tax investigations into 63 companies, targeting subsidised cooking oil repackaging companies.
“We found companies that did not report the proper sales amount or file their taxes,” he said in a press conference at the IRB headquarters here today.
Of the 63 companies investigated, 44 under-declared their earnings, and 19 did not declare income taxes, he said.
According to him, inspections of premises also found that the companies did not report the sales of subsidised oil, used other parties’ subsidised oil quotas and sold the oil illegally, not fully using the packaging quota as allocated but demanding full subsidy payment.
On the modus operandi of the misappropriation of cooking oil subsidies, Nizom said the companies involved in obtaining subsidised cooking oil supplies from supplier companies used licences from other companies to sell at market prices.
“They also hired third parties to manage the transfer of cooking oil for the purpose of sales abroad, demanded subsidies without the sales of packaged cooking oil, and created fake wholesalers for the purpose of claiming subsidies,” he said.
He added that the under-reporting of income as a result of cooking oil subsidy misappropriation activities was estimated at RM1 billion involving tax assessment years 2018 to 2020. – Bernama, March 23, 2022