Kota Kinabalu: A company and three of its board of directors were fined a total of RM40,000 for failing to pay service tax amounting to RM280,834.02 between July 2022 and February 2024.
Sessions Court Judge Hurman Hussain meted out the sentenced to Lektronex Engineering Sb, Chong Chi Ming @ Elvis Chong, 53, Mahmod Tahir, 80, Musah Edris, 69, after pleading guilty to the charges against them on Tuesday.
The court ordered each of the accused to pay RM1,000 or two months’ jail for each count in which each of them have 10 charges. Each of them needed to pay RM10,000 in fines.
The company and directors failed to make the service tax payment during the prescribed period between July 2022 and February 2024.
The offence under Section 26(4) of the Service Tax Act 2018 and punishable under Section 26(8) of the same Act provides for a jail term of up to three years, or fine of up to RM50,000, or both, on conviction.
According to the facts of the case, they submitted the sales and service tax SST-02 to the Royal Malaysian Customs Department during the prescribed period but failed to pay.
They also failed to pay the penalties for late payment.
In mitigation, they asked for the lowest fine.
However, Customs Prosecuting Officer Azizah Talibe urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence as a lesson to the accused and other taxable persons.
They paid the fines.
