PUTRAJAYA: An estimated RM200mil is expected to be collected from 63 cooking oil repacking companies found to have under-declared or not declared their income.

       The tax evasion was detected following a special operation carried out by the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) on repacking companies that were suspected to have abused cooking oil subsidies.

       LHDN chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Nizom Sairi said out of 63 companies checked during the ops codenamed “Ops Saji”, 44 had under-declared their taxes while 19 did not even have their taxes filed.

       “Investigation revealed that under-declared revenue as a result of misappropriation of cooking oil subsidies around RM1bil involving assessment years between 2018 and 2020.

       “Among the reasons why companies could under-declare their income was because their subsidy quota was given to a third party, resulting in unreported sales of cooking oil,” he told a press conference on Wednesday (March 23).

       Nizom said this was the first time that LHDN had carried out a targeted check up on companies receiving government subsidies for cooking oil, adding that an investigation was carried out following public complaints about lack of supply for packet cooking oil.

       “From the amount of subsidy allocated by the government, the total number of packet cooking oil should be of a certain amount but there is a shortage,” he said.

       The government has allocated about RM400mil to RM600mil in subsidy for cooking oil annually.