Claims that at least two million taxpayers have not received their full refunds.
Former finance minister Lim Guan Eng has pledged to keep pushing the government to ensure two million Malaysians receive full refunds of excess taxes paid to the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) since 2020, despite what he describes as personal attacks over his claims.
In a statement, Lim said DAP’s Teng Chang Khim had twice attacked him on Facebook, questioning his figures and mocking his proposal for LHDN to issue RM20 billion in refunds next month.
“Teng even used a parliamentary reply by the Ministry of Finance on August 20, 2025 to DAP Stampin MP Chong Chieng Jen as proof of my mistake, to use some of his more polite language,” he said.
Lim noted that the Ministry of Finance reply confirmed that more than three million taxpayers had received refunds totalling RM9.35 billion as of 30 June 2025, but only 1.07 million had obtained full refunds amounting to RM2.73 billion.
“This indicates that at least two million taxpayers have not received their full refunds,” he said. “From my estimate of such cases, the amount of excess taxes paid not fully refunded by LHDN amounts to tens of billions ringgit.”
Lim welcomed Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s December decision to increase the allocation for refunds from RM2 billion to RM4 billion, but said this remains inadequate.
“I had urged the prime minister to increase the sum of refunds by LHDN to RM20 billion next month in January 2026. This RM20 billion will go a long way towards ensuring a joyous and prosperous Chinese New Year of the Horse in February for employers and their workers who can get better ang pows,” he said.
He also defended his calculations against Teng’s criticisms.
“Obviously Teng has forgotten how to dissect and understand parliamentary replies. Nowhere in the parliamentary reply by MOF did they state the actual amount owed by LHDN to taxpayers of excess taxes not refunded,” Lim said.
“The Ministry of Finance has neither denied nor confirmed my figure of tens of billions ringgit of excess taxes paid not fully refunded. MOF has only verified that such a problem of taxpayers not getting back their own excess taxes paid since 2020 by LHDN exists,” he added.
Lim urged Malaysians to support the affected taxpayers, saying, “I would urge all right-thinking Malaysians to side with these unfortunate two million taxpayers attempting to get their full refunds of excess taxes paid since 2020 from LHDN.”
He vowed to continue his efforts despite the criticism.
“Despite facing personal attacks, I will not stop but persevere to strive on behalf of these two million Malaysian taxpayers owed tens of billions of ringgit of excess taxes paid to LHDN since 2020 to get back their full refunds from LHDN,” he said.