Umno urges action against Guan Eng over ‘stolen GST funds’ remark

(FMT) – Umno information chief Shahril Hamdan has urged that a motion be tabled in the Dewan Rakyat again to censure former finance minister Lim Guan Eng for allegedly lying to Parliament about GST refunds.

Shahril made the proposal today following a statement by Wong Chen, MP for Subang Jaya, reaffirming the findings of the Public Accounts Committee that no money was stolen from funds meant for Goods and Services Tax refunds by the previous Barisan Nasional government.

Shahril questioned why Wong and other PAC members from Pakatan Harapan had rejected a move to refer Lim to the rights committee.

Lim, who is MP for Bagan, had said in the Dewan Rakyat in 2018 that the BN administration had “robbed” the people of RM19.4 billion from money kept for the tax refunds.

He accused Wong Chen and other MPs from PH of setting aside principle. “In fact, much worse, (they) still defended and supported the continuous lies from Lim Guan Eng even though the PAC report had stated the contrary,”

The Public Accounts Committee, which is the parliamentary watchdog on government expenditure, had said the money had been deposited into the Consolidated Revenue Account instead of the GST Refund Account, and had been used for operational and development expenditure.

A censure motion was tabled by Barisan Nasional MPs in July 2019, led by Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin, but the motion was rejected by the Speaker.

Shahril said it was important for the motion to be tabled again to restore honour to the Dewan Rakyat and allow the public to judge whether Wong Chen and PH MPs had upheld the honour of the house.